Claudio Ranieri goes back to Rome, his native city, for the second time this season. After the draw with Roma, Juventus face Lazio and will go for the whole three points, more important than ever in this phase of the season. One week before the start of the winter break, to end the year with a positive run would be the best way to spend the Christmas holidays happily.The team must win to keep up the pace in the top positions, but most of all to start winning away from home again, as it's been a while since the last away win. In fact, apart from the derby, the Bianconeri have only won once away from home this season, at Cagliari. “That's not a lot for a team with our ambitions - Ranieri confirmed during the press conference on the eve of the game -. Getting back to winning away from home would give us more of an awareness of what we can achieve. We're less confident away from home? I don't think that's the problem. Just look at our games. We did well in Rome, Florence and Milan. But the teams we face are always more motivated in front of their own crowd, for sure”.
The Bianconeri will face Lazio right after they were eliminated from the Champions League by Real Madrid, but this won't make them any less motivated. Ranieri confirmed as much: “They played well in Madrid. Lazio have been handicapped by injuries this year. Everything went well for them last year, this year they've been very unlucky. But despite all this, Delio Rossi is doing remarkable things. We face a team that play well; they play vertically, they attack with several men at once and push forward on the wings. They have a good team organization. Do I remember a match against Lazio at the Olimpico? A 4-0 win in the Champions League when I was at Chelsea springs to mind, but I tend to look to the future, not the past”.
Juve go back to the Olimpico three months after the game against Roma, but this time without the star of that match. Iaquinta has the flu and joins a list of unavailable players that already included Camoranesi. “I'm sorry about that; he was doing well lately – Ranieri concluded -. But we're still going there to win. We’ll take advantage of AC Milan not playing? I don't worry too much about who we have behind us; we look to who's in front, knowing we can still improve. You just have to see how many games we've had to play without Camoranesi”.
www.juventus.com - 14 December 2007
