Juve owe it to Abbiati

Juventus coach Fabio Capello singled out goalkeeper Christian Abbiati for special praise after his last minute heroics in Saturday's 1-0 home win over Messina.

The Serie A leaders missed a host of chances after Alessandro Del Piero had given them a 24th minute lead and only a superb reflex save by the on-loan keeper ensured Juve maintained their 100 per cent record.

In trying to clear a cross, Juve defender Lilian Thuram succeeded only in sending the ball towards his own goal and Abbiati reacted quickly to save the Frenchman's blushes.

"Abbiati was excellent, he saved the result," Capello said of the keeper who was strangely loaned to Juve by their title rivals AC Milan after Gianluigi Buffon dislocated his shoulder in a pre-season match.

"We should have put away our chances and killed the game off. Every team in Serie A has players that are capable of causing danger."

Juve's seventh consecutive win left them one victory short of the best ever start to a Serie A season and saw them open up an eight point lead at the top of the table.

Juventus have a maximum 21 points from seven games, eight more than AC Milan and Fiorentina who play on Sunday.

Messina, meanwhile, are still looking for their first win of the season.

Juventus, the reigning champions, made all the early running and their pressure told in the 24th minute.

Del Piero, whose talent may be fading but whose creativity always poses a threat to the opposition, picked up the ball 40 yards out and dribbled past two defenders before firing right-footed into the bottom corner.

Marco Storari pulled off two superb saves from Mauro Camoranesi and Zlatan Ibrahimovic to prevent Juventus from increasing their advantage while at the other end Arturo Di Napoli's drive almost caught out Abbiati.

David Trezeguet came on for Juve in the closing stages and was unfortunate to see his angled half-volley come back off the post before Abbiati came to the home side's rescue with seconds remaining.

In Saturday's early match David Di Michele scored a hat-trick as Udinese survived a fierce second-half onslaught to win 3-2 at Siena.

The 29-year-old striker struck twice in a five-minute, first-half spell before completing his treble seconds after the restart to put the visitors 3-0 up.

Enrico Chiesa's sixth goal of the season and a Valerio Bertotto own goal breathed life into the home side but Udinese hung on to secure their fourth win in seven matches.