In Group A, the
“The Italian Cup is one of our objectives, like the League title, and it would be a great result if we managed to win it, also because I've never won it in my seven years at Juve”. Gigi Buffon spoke to Juventus Channel and focused his attention on the next Italian Cup game, which is to be played tomorrow night at Empoli, to qualify for the quarter finals.
A match that needs to be won, to keep up an alternative to the League, as Gigi has never kept it a secret that he sees other teams as the favourites for the title rather than Juventus this year: “I'm happy when I hear David or the Manager inviting everyone to keep the dream of winning the title alive. I'm an optimist by nature and like them I hope we can fulfil this dream as soon as possible. I don't know if it's going to be already possible this year; the League will be tough this year for sure, because there are some very strong teams around”.
The last question concerns the “third half” everybody's talking about. The League officials appreciated Fiorentina's players' gesture at the end of the match against Inter Milan, when they applauded and greeted their opponents, and have decided that from January this will have to be applied by all teams:
“This is an important fair play signal – Gigi commented – even though perhaps I don't like the fact that this initiative needs to be officially enforced, instead of coming from the players themselves. On an educational level, I think it's more than right to do this, but I definitely prefer the way this “third half” was applied in Sunday's match in
www.juventus.com - 4 December 2007
Read More
The Gazzetta dello Sport is today suggesting that Alessandro Del Piero is now officially a second-choice player at Juventus.
Del Piero came on against
Despite this display, Del Piero was only offered 19 minutes of action in last Saturday’s 0-0 draw with
Nevertheless it now appears that the Tinkerman has decided that Iaquinta and Trezeguet are his first-choice strikeforce, with Del Piero having to mostly make do with a role from the substitutes bench.
This is not a totally new scenario for the Bianconeri all-time record goalscorer, who rarely completed 90 minutes during Fabio Capello’s two-year stint at the club between 2004 and 2006.
The Don, who had a fractious relationship with Del Boy, often preferred to play Trezeguet and Zlatan Ibrahimovic up-front.
Read More
Claudio Ranieri has cooled speculation linking Juventus with big signings ahead of the transfer window reopening in January.
The resurgent Italian giants have been linked with a host of players over recent weeks including Gilberto Silva, Olof Mellberg, Diego Lugano and Branislav Ivanovic, while there have also been persistent rumours about under-utilised summer signings Tiago and Almiron have been put in the shop window.
Not so, insists Bianconeri boss Clauido Ranieri, who has seen his side make a very positive return to the big time after a year stuck in Serie B as a consequence of the Calciopoli scandal.
"We won't make any signings in the January market because we have a group of players who are growing," Ranieri said to Sky Italia. "I believe a lot in Tiago and Almiron - they have big possibilities.
"When I say we have a big group, it's also because I have faith in these players."
Italian football daily Tutosport has other ideas, however, and just yesterday they ran a story about Juve having their mind set on either luring Werder Bremen star Diego or Hamburg's Rafael van der Vaart to Turin in time for the second-half of the season.
Juventus President Giovanni Cobolli Gigli has defended Coach Claudio Ranieri after he waited until the 71st minute to bring on Alessandro Del Piero against
The game at San Siro on Saturday night ended in an intriguing 0-0 stalemate, but some people have criticised Ranieri for not introducing Del Piero from the bench sooner.
“I wasn’t amazed to see Del Piero on the bench,” Gigli insisted.
“We are used to Claudio Ranieri choosing formations that are appropriate and right on the money and we trust him to do that.
“Do I agree with Ranieri’s decision? I just want victory, that’s the first priority and as a Juventus fan I wan’t three points with or without Alex. Del Piero will have lots of chances to start.”
Gigli also believes that Juventus could have won the game. David Trezeguet hit the post in the first-half, while
“We could have won. Personally I’m disappointed that it finished 0-0,” Gigli stressed.
“We showed some important attributes and we have such great room for improvement.
“We have such great character and we have shown that in the top of the table clashes.”
