Lazio's Salas Hopes for Chilean Permission to Face Juventus
ROME (November 5, 2000 5:10 p.m. EST http://www.sportserver.com) - Lazio's Chilean striker Marcelo Salas will ask his national team coach Nelson Acosta this week if he can arrive 24 hours later than planned for the World Cup
2002 qualifier with Argentina on November 15, the player said Sunday.
Salas hopes to get Acosta's approval to fly out next Sunday, allowing him to play for the Italian champions in Saturday's titanic battle with Juventus at Turin.
Salas said: "I spoke with the coach Acosta and they want me to go to Chile on the Saturday but I asked him if it was possible to play at Turin and then go the day after."
Salas, who said he would speak to Acosta again this week, is determined not to lose his place in the Lazio team after regaining a starting role because of the injury to Claudio Lopez, the club's Argentinian forward who is facing four months on the sidelines after surgery.
"I want to get a run-out with Juve," said Salas. "For us it is a very important match."
Salas said his return to Lazio action had helped him forget his
disappointment at the collapse of a much-touted move to Inter Milan.
"At the end of the day I am happy to stay here," he said. "But now I must start to play regularly. At the end I am happy to stay in the capital but although I am fine we will have to see at the end of the season."
Salas made an impressive first-team return against Bologna, setting up the first goal for Pavel Nedved of the Czech Republic in a 2-0 victory.
