Del Piero Points Way Forward For Juve
Tuesday 23rd October 2001
Coach Marcello Lippi praised striker Alessandro de Piero for leading Juventus to victory over Porto on Tuesday and easing the pressure on his side ahead of Saturday's showdown with Inter.
"I was delighted with Del Piero," he said. "He is the captain this team needed.
"I am very happy because we have achieved one of our principal targets of the season," Lippi added. "We started badly on the night, and Clayton's goal soon after the kick-off scared us.
"But my boys were intelligent and reacted immediately. After Del Piero's exploits, everything became simpler and we played really well."
Del Piero, who had to wear a bandage on his fractured arm, crashed a free kick past a stranded Sergei Ovchinnikov on 32 minutes to cancel out Clayton's 13th minute strike for Porto.
The goal changed the complexion of the game and liberated Juve, who had won just once in their past seven games.
The relief was apparent as Lippi's side grew in confidence and two minutes after the break Del Piero's corner was headed home emphatically by Paolo Montero to give Juve the lead.
Del Piero then had a 67th minute strike controversially disallowed for offside, but David Trezeguet put the result beyond doubt when he knocked home Pavel Nedved's cross on 73 minutes.
The win took Juve through to the second stage and boosted confidence ahead of Saturday's Serie A clash with Inter.
"Everyone played well," Del Piero said. "We all wanted a positive result and we obtained it.
"We have qualified and that is the most important thing of all. But it's true that we still have some things to improve on.
"We have to take more chances and pay more attention in defence. But we wanted to qualify and now we must keep playing this way to reach or next target."
Juve's convincing performance reaffirmed Lippi's desire to make do with the strikers he has at his disposal, despite injury to Marcelo Salas.
"I am satisfied with this group," the coach reiterated. "I have recovered Nicola Amoruso from injury and I have the option of using Pavel Nedved as a striker."
Octavio Machado recognised the fairness of the result.
"We deserved to lose," he said. "FC Porto started very well and managed to control the game which was a very difficult task.
"But as soon as we scored we inexplicably lost our concentration and from then on we never got back in the game.
"I'm sad to say that this was one of the worst if not the worst games of the season. After gaining psychological superiority over Juventus we just couldn't keep our rhythm."
"We lost possession in forbidden zones, and in this kind of competition playing against Juventus if you make silly mistakes you are going to pay for them.
"The Italians build their game around a strong defence and a fast counterattack, that was exactly what we saw today."
Hugo Ibarra gave the ball away to allow Nedved to cross for Juve's third goal from Trezeguet, but Machado did not blame the Argentine right-back for the error - concentrating instead on his side's final game against Rosenborg which Porto must win to make sure of qualification.
"It's true that Ibarra made a mistake, but when we lose, we all lose," he said. "I don't discriminate against players, I worry about the group.
"And the group has every reason to believe they will qualify for the next phase. It's not going to be easy to beat Rosenborg but we are in control of our destiny and that's very important."
If Celtic beat Juventus at Parkhead next week, anything other than victory for Porto will see the Scottish champions advance instead.
