Ancelotti Buoyed By Away Victory
Sunday 4th March 2001
Juventus coach Carlo Ancelotti was delighted with his side after their 2-0 victory at Udinese. "Today we played fine football," he said.
"We played better than Udinese, especially in the first half," he went on. "I'm really satisfied with this scoreline and this performance. We have to carry on with these performances. We have to do the best we can until the end of the Championship.
"It was a match we dominated from the beginning. We played on the offensive, preventing Udinese from attacking. We closed them down, we blocked both the flanks, preventing Jorgensen from playing his natural game."
Goals from Gianluca Zambrotta and Filippo Inzaghi gave Juve victory, but Alessandro Del Piero and Alberto were sent off in separate incidents late on.
"The referee was right to send Del Piero off," Ancelotti admitted. "Pessotto and Birindelli played very well and Zambrotta did very well in his central role."
He remained non-committal about the incident just before Inzaghi's goal in which Udinese claim Pessotto brought down Alberto. "In my opinion Pessotto touched him, but he accentuated his dive," Ancelotti said.
His Udinese counterpart Luigi De Canio agreed that Juve deserved the victory. "Juve played better," he said. "We played badly against a great team. Their power stopped us playing our game.
"We played with two strikers at the beginning, but Juve closed us down. After the second goal we tried to up the pace but our efforts weren't rewarded."
De Canio was furious about the penalty that wasn't awarded. "My players told me that the referee has harmed us," he said.
"I heard that Pessotto admitted to the referee that he had committed a foul.But we played badly and the protests don't bring us points."
Inzaghi paid tribute to Del Piero for his performance. "We did well to dominate the match - we produced several chances and hit the post twice. I'm really happy with my goal, but Del Piero served me well.
"In my opinion, Del Piero played a wonderful match. As for Udinese's complaints, I think Alberto exaggerated his dive. But the referee had to decide in a moment - it's hard to judge the episode."
