Juve Can Still Do It, Ancelotti Insists
Monday 28th May 2001
Coach Carlo Ancelotti still believes that Juventus can clinch the scudetto after watching his side close the gap on leaders Roma to four points with just two games remaining. "I'm sure that our next match in Vicenza, and Roma's game in Naples will not be simple affairs," he said.
At one stage it looked as though it might have even better for Juventus, as they went ahead against Perugia thanks to a goal from France international David Trezeguet, while Roma trailed to AC Milan, only for the leaders to hit back through Vicenzo Montella to snatch a draw.
Ancelotti, though, refused to be downhearted. "It's not just Juventus and Roma who have two cup finals to play," he said. "Too many teams in the league have things to fight for, and it won't be that simple."
The coach though admitted that his side had not been at their best in eking out the win over Perugia. "We didn't find a way of playing as a team," he said "But we had many good chances in the first half."
Ancelotti surprised many by leaving Filippo Inzaghi on the bench and starting instead with Trezeguet, a decision that was vindicated ten minutes after half-time as Trezeguet controlled Gianluca Zambrotta's cross and fired home the winner.
"David is in top form at the moment," Ancelotti explained. "He deserves his chance. The problem for our forwards is that we went out of the Cup too early, so they missed out on a lot of matches."
Ancelotti also accepted that his side have dropped a lot of needless points during the second half of the season, but he insisted that other sides had been equally unfortunate.
"Every team will complain about having dropped points," he said. "Of course I regret that Roma equalised in the last minute against us, and Baggio's equaliser for Brescia, and the penalty we missed against Lecce, but in football that means nothing: you only get the points you deserve."
