Lippi Overjoyed With Juve Resilience
Sunday 3rd March 2002
Juventus coach Marcello Lippi was delighted with the way his side bounced back from their disappointing Champions' League defeat to Deportivo La Coruna to beat Bologna.
"It was a great win and the perfect reaction to Wednesday's defeat," he said.
Juve went behind to a Lamberto Zauli goal, but levelled almost immediately through David Trezeguet. Their winner came three minutes from time as Massimo Tarantino put through his own goal.
"It was a great win because it was achieved against a very string Bologna," Lippi went on. "Francesco Guidolin's side were very focussed, and it was far from simple to recover that against such a string opponent.
"It's true that we got the winner thanks to an own goal, but I don't think anybody could say we didn't deserve it."
And Lippi defended his policy of squad rotation, which has come in for criticism in recent weeks, particularly following the defeat to Depor.
"Rotation is necessary for big clubs who play so many matches each season. When you have 20-22 important players, you have to let them all play so they are in a good condition when you need them."
Alessandro del Piero had a disappointing game, and was withdrawn for Marcelo Zalayeta a quarter of an hour from time - to his obvious disgust. "I replaced Alex because I needed somebody to win headers in the box," Lippi explained.
"Marcelo won a lot of balls in the box, and was very useful to us. Don't forget that Alex has played in a lot of matches in the last few months and sometimes needs to rest to recover his strength."
