Del Piero: It's tough, but we won't give up

April 2, 2002
Juventus Official Site

Two days of absolute rest. Two days to put it all behind the back and forget for a moment the actual situation. The team went back to work after Saturday's draw with Lazio. A 1-1 that made the championship even harder.After the two day break, minds are pretty much the same. Speaker for the team, the captain in person: "We are very realist at this time. The hopes for the final victory are scarce. Still, we do hope in come back, but with two teams on top it's harder still. We all now that it will be very difficult to come back on track, but we will try. If at the begining we counted the Coppa Italia as a minor trophy, now it has become the most important".

There's a bit of sadness in the team. No one hides it. But Del Piero is the first one not to speak of a failure: "If I were a fan? I'd be disheartened, the same state of mind we are all in. But I wouldn't talk of a failure. To call a disaster you need to play all competions badly, which hasn't happened to us. Not this year or the previous years. When Juventus doesn't win, it's always not a good year. Here we all play to win, there are no transitional years".

Captain on the field, captain off the field. Del Piero tries to understand this situation: "We did all we could to win. Obviously something went wrong. But I wouldn't point the finger towards the coach or the club. We're all on the same boat. This, unfortunately, has been a strange year, with plenty of injuries. There is still something to fix, but it's a good group from which we can start again".
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