Fallen Juventus Faces Long Road
Posted: Tuesday June 01, 1999 12:54 PM
Italian giant tackles InterToto Cup to reach UEFA Cup
ROME (Reuters) -- Former European champion Juventus faces a long hot summer
following its failure to qualify automatically for either of European
soccer's club competitions.
The Turin side, European Cup winners in 1996 and beaten finalists for the
next two years, must now slog it out in the InterToto Cup with the leading
lights of Welsh and Maltese soccer to try to win a place in the UEFA Cup.
The club's opening match will be against a team from Romania, Lithuania,
Bosnia or possibly even the Faroe Islands.
While few would expect Juventus to fail in its bid to reach the UEFA Cup for
the 13th time, the very fact it has to barge its way in through the back
door suggests how far the Turin club has fallen this season.
It finished sixth in the league, rode its luck to reach the semifinals of
the European Cup and lost the home end of season playoff against Udinese on
away goals on Monday when a victory would have given the club a UEFA Cup
place.
"It has been a difficult championship and it has ended in difficulty," coach
Carlo Ancelotti said.
"Reaching the UEFA Cup was a modest objective and we failed to achieve it
... but we'll take part in the InterToto Cup with humility and enthusiasm."
Juve's InterToto campaign could have damaging repercussions on its league
form next season, exposing the club's players to injury before the Serie A
championship kicks off, and depriving them of a lengthy summer break.
Ancelotti's side will regroup on July 1 for its opening cup match on July
17, giving the players just one month to recover from this year's exhausting
season.
The club's European pedigree is up with the very best -- in 1985 it became
the first club to win all three continental competitions -- and the prospect
of it missing out next season is almost unthinkable.
It has only twice failed to qualify for Europe, in 1962 and 1991, and has
competed in 18 European Cup campaigns, winning it twice, in 1985 and 1996.
Juventus has contested the UEFA Cup 12 times, triumphing in 1977, 1990 and
1993 and it won the Cup Winners' Cup once, in 1984, in its four attempts.
In all, the club has lost just 64 of its 283 matches in Europe, spread over
38 tremendously successful seasons.
While Juve's name will, in all probability, be in the hat when the draw is
made for the first round of the UEFA Cup in August, Inter Milan's will not.
Inter lost its playoff second leg match against Bologna on Sunday and has
decided not to enter the InterToto Cup, preferring instead to lick its
wounds and regroup before the arrival of former Juventus coach Marcelo Lippi
next season.
The Milan giant has had a disastrous season, axing three coaches in a vain
search for a winning formula before finally finishing eighth in Serie A and
losing in the quarterfinals of the European Cup.
Just one year ago Juventus won the Italian championship and reached the
European Cup final while Inter was runners up in Serie A and won the UEFA
Cup.
Now, if the Faroe Islands has its way, they could both be watching the
European competitions unfold from the sidelines.
