From the papers

September 13, 2000
Juventus Official Site

The main subject of conversation in the press today is Juve's head-to-head with Hamburg in this evening's Champions League Group E opener.

The Gazzetta dello Sport highlights Carlo Ancelotti's comments on the build-up to the match. "The better fitness level of our opponents is just one of the difficulties we're going to run into tonight, perhaps the most obvious one," he conceded. "It could prove to be an important factor as the match progresses. But we've worked hard over recent weeks to be ready for tonight. We must counter their superior fitness by imposing our own game."

Tuttosport focuses on Alessandro Del Piero: "Del Piero puts his money on a good Champions League campaign. It looks at present as though Alex will play, but this is only a feeling. Ancelotti played some psychological games, handing out first team bibs in training without any apparent criteria (in training Alex was alongside Trezeguet and Kovacevic played with Inzaghi)." As promised, the manager wasn't going to give anything away and so far has been as good as his word.

The Corriere dello Sport gives veteran centre-back Ciro Ferrara some column inches, under the headline, "Cancelling the Manchester United nightmare." As the paper points out, this will be the Neapolitan's 66th European match. "The last one two season's ago against the English side made him suffer." As Ciro himself says, "Its better to cancel thoughts of that game from our minds. I'll concentrate on Hamburg, a team that has already played in a number of official matches and that shouldn't be underestimated. Nevertheless we're in good shape, played an excellent match in the Berlusconi cup and are ready for another season leading the pack."
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