Del Piero Title-Talk Is Bravado, Says Batistuta
Wednesday 21st March 2001
Roma star Gabriel Batistuta has dismissed the claims of Alessandro Del Piero that Juventus can still win the Scudetto as "beer-talk". The prolific forward added: "Roma's main rivals are not Juve, but ourselves."
The capital club, who last won the Scudetto in 1983, stand seven points clear of their nearest rivals.
And Batigol said: "Of course Del Piero believes that Juventus can overtake us. They need to have that motivation. If Juve thought we were destined to stay at the top for the rest of the season, then they wouldn't have to bother training.
"I respect Del Piero's opinion, but what he said sounds like beer-talk to me. If we are afraid of losing now that we have a seven-point lead, then we don't deserve the Scudetto."
Batistuta has started training again after suffering yet another knee injury against Vicenza. He ought to be back in action in a fortnight and is keen to catch up with Andriy Shevchenko and Hernan Crespo in the goalscoring charts.
More than the title of top scorer, though, Batistuta is desperate to win the Scudetto, which always eluded him with Fiorentina. Roma took a significant step closer when Juve slumped to a 4-1 defeat at Lazio on Sunday, having two men sent off in the process.
The recriminations in Italy have continued ever since, but Juve boss Carlo Ancelotti has refused to blame referee Pierluigi Collina for the defeat.
"Collina made a mistake to send of Edgar Davids, but there's no conspiracy against Juventus," he said. "We lost because we didn't pay attention to Lazio's qualities. We knew they were strong on the counter-attack, but still looked surprised."
Striker Filippo Inzaghi was of a similar opinion. "Collina made an error, but we have to stop all the controversy.
"I think that being a referee is the hardest job in the world. We have to understand that they can make a mistake just as we can misplace a pass."
