From the papers

February 25, 2000
Juventus Official Site

It's Alessandro Del Piero and Zinedine Zidane who stand out in bold relief in today's papers as all eyes turn to Juventus' home game with Roma on Sunday night. Much is expected of the pair, not least of Del Piero whose goalscoring intervention against Sweden (albeit from the penalty spot) hinted at a renewed taste for the onion bag. "I think that I am now due a goal from open play. If we get a penalty, though, Zidane can take it," he reveals to the Corriere dello Sport, which has seen enough from the Juventus number 10 to declare that Del Piero is now ready to fire Juve's title challenge.

But the 25-year-old is not expecting the mutual antipathy between Juventus and Roma to spill over onto the field - international football has widened perspectives in both camps. "With Italy, we lived the build-up to Sunday's game with the Roma lads and we all had a laugh and a joke about it. I really hope now that it´ll be a top quality game. Let's just hope that I can score from open play in the not-too-distant future," Del Piero tells the Gazzetta dello Sport.

Zinedine Zidane was another to enjoy a productive evening on the international stage on Wednesday night, scoring the goal which separated France and Poland in Paris. Zidane too appears to have benefited from contact with a member of the opposition: Vincent Candela, the Roma full-back, is convinced that Fabio Capello, coach of the Giallorossi, has nightmares about the France playmaker.

Not that Zidane needs to have his ego inflated. To use the modern football euphemism, the former Bordeaux midfielder is in the zone at the moment and cannot wait to turn Sunday evening into a fright night for Capello. "I am really at the peak of my powers. I am happy at Juventus. After the injury last year, I put in a lot of work and I am now seeing the rewards. The game against Roma will be intense and very interesting," he says in today's Gazzetta.

But if Juventus are to take another step towards Zidane's declared intent of another League championship with a win against Roma, they will have to do so without Gianluca Zambrotta, Igor Tudor and possibly Antonio Conte. Zambrotta is suspended, Tudor has a muscle injury and skipper Conte is struggling with a calf problem.
.