Moggi tries to joke, Del Piero is criticizing

November 27, 2001
Daily Soccer

TURIN - Juventus FC haven't lost anything yet and surely not their high spirits.

Yesterday the club's president Luciano Moggi tried to joke over his club's situation: "We have decided not to rush and give our rivals some chances." Then he added more seriously: "We need to sign several new players, and moreover to overcome some problems such as injuries, suspensions and the players' international duty."

Simultaneously, Moggi confesses that their former star Zinedine Zidane, now with Real Madrid, is irreplaceable.

Tomorrow's Champions League match against Bayern 04 Leverkusen is likely to be the last trial for Lilian Thuram, Edgar Davids and Pavel Nedved. Wednesday's match will be another chance to prove that not everything is lost yet, and smoothen the unpleasant impression from the recent match, lost 0:1 at S.S. Lazio. Though the upcoming match is far not one of the easiest clashes, as the rival is rather strong, in Europe Juventus play better than in their own championship.

The coach Marcelo Lippi's future in the club is beyond any risk, as neither he is going to resign yet, nor the management is willing to fire him.

However, there are rumours that Luigi Del Neri will take over the club next season.

Alessandro Del Piero's criticism to his team is too sharp.

"We will not manage to do in the field what we want to. It is necessary to put all the efforts to return all we have had at the beginning of the season," said Juve's captain.

All the words in the world will not be enough to express the whole dissatisfaction with the team's position in the standings of the Italian championship.

"Now we're suffering not the best days of ours. But this is when we will use our skill and potential to find a way out. There is no need of spending words. Everything will be clear on Wednesday on the field, in the match against Bayer. We have had good plays in this season, also not so successful ones, but I have to mention, that I did like some of our performances, which ended in draws," announced Juventus captain Alessandro Del Piero.

Del Piero also noted that he was very much dissatisfied with his own play, as well as his teammates performance.

"The statistics confirms that we haven't done more than any other team, thus we have nothing to boast of. It's true, we didn't start very successfully, but as evident, other great teams haven't gone far from us either. A witness of this is the fact that the Chievo currently head the standings."

At the end Del Piero declared: "At present we need to understand ourselves, understand the situation and try to play at the highest level."
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