Iuliano Make Peace Offer to Ronaldo
Copyright � 1998 Nando.net
Copyright � 1998 Reuters
ROME (Oct 23, 1998 - 11:56 EDT) - Mark Iuliano's reputation for uncompromising tackles makes him an unlikely peacemaker.
But the tough Juventus defender has turned soccer diplomat ahead of Sunday's serie A showdown against Inter Milan in Turin.
Six months after referee Piero Ceccarini's failure to award a penalty for Iuliano's bodycheck on Ronaldo arguably cost Inter the title, the Italy international has offered his own olive branch to the Brazilian.
"I would like to shake hands with him (Ronaldo)," said Iuliano on Thursday. "It's all water under the bridge now. Sunday is another game, another championship."
Inter president Massimo Moratti, whose argument with the Italian Football Federation over their method of selecting referees had fuelled the controversy, accepted Iuliano's peace offer.
"We, too, would like the arguing to stop. It's lasted long enough," said Moratti, who has always maintained that Inter would have won last April's clash if "it was 11 against 11 on the pitch."
The conciliatory words will help take the tension out of the latest version of the "Italian Derby" which is being billed as Inter's chance for revenge.
In truth, both sides approach the 134th Juve-Inter encounter on 10 points in the league with AS Roma and two behind early pacesetters Fiorentina, struggling for the form which led to last year's thrilling title race.
Inter's fine 2-1 win over Spartak Moscow in the European Champions' League on Wednesday finally eased the pressure on coach Luigi Simoni after an humiliating 5-3 home defeat to Lazio.
The San Siro setback might have been Inter's first league defeat of the season, but the side's performance had confirmed doubts about the manager's choice of tactics.
According to press reports, defenders were unsure whether they were playing zonal defence or man-to-man marking.
Against Spartak, Simoni revolutionished the line-up, shifting Argentine midfielder Diego Simeone back to sweeper, picking Portugal's Paolo Sousa for the first time this season and starting striking sensation Nicola Ventola alongside Ronaldo.
"They were good," said Moratti, who has spent a fortune trying to rid San Siro of the ghosts of his father Angelo's "Grande Inter" of the 1960s.
Against Juventus, Simoni will field the same side, although Giuseppe Bergomi is expected to replace the suspended Simeone, allowing the veteran sweeper to equal Gianni Rivera's record of 501 league appearances.
Sousa, consistently injured since his transfer from Borussia Dortmund earlier in the year, is certain to start against the side he helped to win the 1995 league title and 1996 European Cup before leaving for Germany in acrimonious circumstances.
With Youri Djorkaeff injured against Spartak Moscow, 19-year-old Andra Pirlo will play behind Ventola and Ronaldo, nearly back to his best after a knee injury.
Italy under-21 player Pirlo, signed from Brescia, has delighted the San Siro with his playmaking ability and transformed Inter when he substituted Djorkaeff on Wednesday.
A long-time friend of Ventola off-the-pitch, Pirlo also possesses an innate understanding of the young striker's movements on-the-pitch. "I believe that whoever's in form is useful to the club, even if they are 18-years-old," said Ventola.
Unlike Simoni, who has 27 players to juggle, Juventus manager Marcello Lippi is sticking with the side which won him last season's championship and lost the European Cup final.
With the return of Iuliano from injury in Wednesday's scoreless draw at Athletic Bilbao and Croat discovery Igor Tudor a fixture in defence alongside Uruguayan Paolo Montero, the Turin side's defence still looks formidable.
But the failure to create scoring chances has stunted their start to the season, in which they have drawn all three matches in the Champions' League and dropped five points in serie A.
In their last three games -- home to Piacenza and away to Vicenza and Athletic Bilbao -- Juventus have created an average of four scoring chances per match.
Lippi puts the blame on the lack of fitness of key players like Alessandro Del Piero and France's Zinedine Zidane, who reported late for training after the World Cup.
But with Angelo Di Livio in the twilight of his career and full-backs Alessandro Birindelli and Croat Zoran Mirkovic wary of moving forward, Juve lack someone to get behind defences and lay on crosses.
The coach is putting a brave face on his problems. "Don't forget Juve are capable of everything," he says, "it's not like we have to climb Everest on crutches."
