Juventus Wary of Greek Passion
Posted: Tuesday March 16, 1999 09:57 AM
Club needs win or draw against Olympiakos to advance
ATHENS (Reuters) -- Juventus may be returning to form but it must overcome Greek passion when it clashes with Olympiakos in their Champions League quarterfinal second leg at the Olympic Stadium on Wednesday.
"There will be 75,000 roaring fans at the stadium backing our players. This is our chance to make history and we won't let it slip away," a club official said.
A Greek penalty deep into injury time in the first leg in Turin left Juventus with a shaky 2-1 win and re-kindled Greek hopes of reaching the semifinals for the first time.
Olympiakos goes into the match fresh from a 1-0 win on Saturday over Proodeftiki which kept the club on top of the Greek standings, four points clear of AEK Athens.
"We have not lost at the Olympic Stadium this season," said club coach Dusan Bayevic.
"Juventus is a great club but they will be up against a strong Olympiakos. If we lose we go out gracefully. If they lose, they lose everything."
Juventus has surged from ninth to fifth-place in the Italian standings under new coach Carlo Ancelotti and hopes to salvage a disappointing season by reaching the European Cup final for the fourth successive season following its win in 1996 and defeats in 1997 and 1998.
Italy striker Filippo Inzaghi, who scored in Juve's 2-1 first leg win, said he expected an epic battle in Athens.
"It's going to be tough, we all know that, because the Greek teams really get pumped up in front of their own fans," said Inzaghi, who scored a hat trick in last season's second leg quarterfinal at Dynamo Kiev.
"But as far as I know, the fans have never scored a goal," he added.
Bayevic has assigned the attacking job to talented midfielders Predrag Djordjevic, Stelios Yannakopoulos, Grigoris Georgatos and striker Sinica Gogic. Yannakopoulos scored twice in a friendly with Croatia last Wednesday.
One problem for the Greeks is the sprained right hand of goalkeeper Dimitris Eleftheropoulos, who made a series of fine saves in Turin. He was expected to play with the help of pain killers. They will also definitely be without striker Ilija Ivic who has a leg injury.
Ancelotti, without injured Alessandro Del Piero for the rest of the season, said he was still unsure whether to pair Inzaghi with Argentine Juan Esnaider, Uruguayan Daniel Fonseca or Nicola Amoruso.
But he added that world footballer of the year Zinedine Zidane of France had recovered from an ankle injury and would start.
Italy goalkeeper Angelo Peruzzi and Uruguayan defender Paolo Montero will have to pass fitness tests on Wednesday with Michelangelo Rampulla and Alessandro Birindelli ready to step in for them.
Ancelotti, who has led Juve to five wins and a draw since taking over for Marcello Lippi, said he expected a different Olympiakos from the first leg.
"They'll have to attack this time since they must score -- they can't just focus on breaking our game down at midfield like last time," he said.
"But we must not think about protecting our lead, that would be a fatal error. We are the better team and must take control of the match without making any silly calculations," he added.
Probable lineups :
Olympiakos : 31-Dimitris Eleftheropoulos; 3-Kyriakos Karataidis, 5-George Amanatidis, 6-Ilias Poursanidis, 14-Dimitris Mavrogenidis, 32-George Anatolakis, 11-Predrag Djordjevic, 18-Vassilis Karapialis, 21-Grigoris Georgatos, 7-Stelios Yannakopoulos, 9-Sinica Gogic
Juventus : 1-Angelo Peruzzi; 15-Alessandro Birindelli, 19-Igor Tudor, 13-Mark Iuliano, 7-Angelo Di Livio; 9-Antonio Conte, 14-Didier Deschamps, 26-Edgar Davids; 21-Zinedine Zidane; 11-Daniel Fonseca, 9-Filippo Inzaghi.
