Del Piero strike dampens Napoli party

September 30, 2000
Onefootball.com

Two late Juventus goals cancelled out Roberto Stellone's first-half goal as Napoli succumbed to last season’s runners-up on their return to Serie A in front of a packed San Paolo stadium. The Turin club’s coach Carlo Ancelotti was full of praise for goalscorer Alessandro Del Piero and dedicated his striker’s goal to the critics who had been calling for the Italy forward to be dropped.

Juventus flattered to deceive in the first half but coach Carlo Ancelotti’s side came back strongly to snatch a victory thanks to goals from Kovacevic and Alex Del Piero.

"We saw two different matches," Ancelotti said after the game. "In the first half we were poor, fearing the opposition and standing off. Napoli’s speed caused problems all night and my side did not play like they can.

"In the second half Inzaghi and Del Piero found more space and we started to play to our potential."

Goalscorer Del Piero was matter-of-fact about his display: "It was only a goal, not a special one," he said. "Maybe people have forgotten that I’m used to scoring goals like that."

After all the problems and debate over Del Piero’s form, the coach was overjoyed to see his striker get back to goal-scoring form: "To say that we are happy for Alex is an understatement, I dedicate it to those who told me to leave him on the bench."

Ancelloti’s counterpart Zdenek Zeman was disappointed that his Napoli side could not sustain their first half form for the whole of the game: "In the first half Napoli played the football I like to see. In the second, my players didn’t manage to play," Zeman said.

"We waited for Juventus to come back at us and when it happened we couldn’t deal with it. We sat too far back and we handed Juventus the space to play in. They punished us with high crosses and that was perfect for players like Kovacevic and of course he punished us by scoring."

Zeman was also disappointed that the referee had not given his side a penalty after Tudor had fouled Stellone: "I think that was a penalty. But the referee didn’t see it. Everybody saw it except the referee."
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