Saturday 9th March 2002

The 'derby of Italy' provided all of the drama and all of the tension for Calcio fans to proclaim that Serie-A really is the best league in Europe, with the Inter and Juventus fighting out a 2-2 draw at the Giuseppe Meazza Stadium tonight.

Clarence Seedorf grabbed the headlines with his equalizing goal as the game crept into stoppage time, an unstoppable shot from fully 35-yards out, his second strike of the game.

As usual refereeing controversies surrounded this clash with Boriello failing to award Inter a penalty as Mark Iuliano blatantly hacked down Christian Vieri inside the box in the first half of tonight's game. To even things up Juventus had an Alessandro Del Piero goal ruled out for an nonexistent offside.

Hector Cuper decided to play Alvaro Recoba as a twin striker, alongside Vieri from the start, with Clarence Seedorf and Sergio Conceicao exploiting the flanks, and the move appeared to pay dividends when Seedorf made room for a shot, from a seemingly innocuous position, and fired home an early goal with a left footed effort from outside the box.

Juve wasted little time in striking back, David Trezeguet's header, from Zambrotta's cross, leveling the tie just 6-minutes later. Zambrotta exploited all of Gresko's weaknesses and caused havoc down the right flank but Juve were forced to make adjustments. Lilian Thuram was forced off the field with a calf injury, Trezeguet had to be substituted and Del Piero took a knock, though he did struggle on to the end.

A crisis in defence meant that Croatian defender Igor Tudor returned to the Juventus starting eleven for this match and he seemed determined to come away with Christian Vieri's shirt, constantly tugging away at it throughout the match. Gresko was still struggling to contain Zambrotta, at one point almost resorting to removing the Juve midfielder's shorts in an attempt to stop him marauding down the wing. But it was the Croatian defender Tudor who cropped up in the Inter box to head home Pavel Nedved's free-kick to give Juventus a late lead . It was the faintest of touches, but it was enough to guide the ball past Francesco Toldo.

Juve had a double penalty appeal turned down as Materazzi tackled Edgar Davids in the box, then slipped and almost handled the ball inside his own area, but for once the referee's decision to wave 'play-on' appeared to be fully justified.

Cuper was forced to make changes, he withdrew Recoba and sent on both Kallon and Ventola, but as the game crept into injury time it was left to Clarence Seedorf to conjor up a bit of magic and his equalizer was fired with all of the power of an exocet missile.

It wasn't always pretty but the game hung on a knife-edge throughout. Juventus are left looking increasingly tired after ever round of their Serie-A and Champions League campaigns, they'll need all of their courage to maintain their challenge. Inter still look in third gear, Cuper has them playing as a real team, it hasn't all fallen into place yet for them but they are over-performing. Roma, despite looking majestic at times, are still dropping points to some of Serie-A's lesser lights as Capello rotates his squad. The run-in will be fascinating.