[Serie A] Juventus - Inter (12 Viewers)
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Confident Mancini Targets Win In Turin
4/18/2005 4:24:00 PM
The Derby of Italy returns on Wednesday with the Nerazzurri aiming to dent their rival’s Scudetto chances.
According to Inter coach Roberto Mancini, winning in Turin against Juventus would be a very important achievement for the Nerazzurri in order to secure the third place in Serie A without thinking about favouring either one of the two top sides, in one way or another.
“We shall go to Turin to win, but concentrated just on ourselves: we cannot think of playing to give any presents to someone else, neither to Milan nor Juventus. This is our future; I don’t work thinking about next year and the eventual reinforcements: I think about winning as much as possible and place something on this shirt. The Coppa Italia is not worth as much as the Champions League, but nothing would.”
Inter are currently in 3rd place, 14 points adrift of Juventus, but 5 points above 4th placed Sampdoria.
4/18/2005 4:24:00 PM
The Derby of Italy returns on Wednesday with the Nerazzurri aiming to dent their rival’s Scudetto chances.
According to Inter coach Roberto Mancini, winning in Turin against Juventus would be a very important achievement for the Nerazzurri in order to secure the third place in Serie A without thinking about favouring either one of the two top sides, in one way or another.
“We shall go to Turin to win, but concentrated just on ourselves: we cannot think of playing to give any presents to someone else, neither to Milan nor Juventus. This is our future; I don’t work thinking about next year and the eventual reinforcements: I think about winning as much as possible and place something on this shirt. The Coppa Italia is not worth as much as the Champions League, but nothing would.”
Inter are currently in 3rd place, 14 points adrift of Juventus, but 5 points above 4th placed Sampdoria.
Fan v Fan: Juventus-Internazionale
4/19/2005 3:19:00 AM
Two of Serie A’s giants clash in Turin in midweek, both having endured torrid weeks on the European stage that at least ended with domestic victories. Juventus were knocked out of the Champions League by Liverpool while Inter’s quarter-final against AC Milan was abandoned then forfeit following crowd trouble. So Inter left the Champions League in disgrace but now have an opportunity to restore some pride by beating Serie A leaders Juventus. Goal.com asked a fan from each side to preview this intriguing clash. Omar Sharaf gives the Juve point of view while Danilo Pochini puts things ‘Inter’ perspective…
GOAL: First of all, how do you feel about your side’s campaign so far? Have you been delighted or dismayed by it?
Omar (Juve): It’s early to say but getting out of the CL was a terrible shock, we all expected to win the Liverpool clash easily, now it’s the league that will determine how our season is gonna end.
Danilo (Inter): Our problem is that we inexplicably threw away a lot of straightforward games when we seemed to be cruising, at the beginning of the season. Of course, it had to do with weak defending and a team with many new faces trying to find an identity. But the positive thing is that we almost never lost our heads and often made good comebacks. Also in the second part of the season we’ve been doing as well as any side in Serie A. The loss against Milan in the CL was entirely logical to me and I saw it coming the moment we were drawn against them. That is not the most disappointing aspect of our season. In any case we’ve done much better than last year I think (in the brief, pitiable Zaccheroni era).
GOAL: Tactically, where do you think this match may be won or lost?
Omar (Juve): The midfield, every game is won in the midfield. We have a better midfield and if we play it right we will dominate them like in the first match.
Danilo (Inter): That’s a difficult one. If our attack is firing on all cylinders, preferrably with Adriano in form, we’re unstoppable for anyone, as the San Siro game against Juve showed. Meanwhile Juve’s attack tends to struggle against good defences (i.e. not Lecce). So I think the forward line that has its best night will end up winning the match (or drawing at the last minute, which is always likely with Inter).
GOAL: Which opposition player do you consider to be the greatest threat to your team in this clash?
Omar (Juve): Martins without thinking twice about it. You can mark anyone even Adriano but Martins – woooof! - this guy is fast as a rocket and can create havoc in the opposition defence if he’s on form.
Danilo (Inter): That’s easier: Zlatan Ibrahimovic. Nedved isn’t at his best just yet, Del Piero hasn’t been for years, and Trezeguet is out. What’s more, the gangly Swede scored 5 goals in the last two Serie A games. But while he is clearly Juve’s most in-form striker, it’s not a single player of the team that scares me, but rather their team spirit and motivation for this match, which could be decisive in their Scudetto race (which unfortunately we can’t take part in anymore).
GOAL: Would you want him in your team?
Omar (Juve): Sure thing, he’s very talented and we would make a huge star of him. Inter will just destroy him they don’t know how to handle youngsters and the fact that they have the best youth teams and go spend millions to get old players who’re good at nothing says it all.
Danilo (Inter): Not really because we already have a lot of great goalscorers, and the numbers say we have the best attack in the league. Also I was never a fan of him as a person although he has improved since leaving Ajax.
GOAL: Who from your team should we keep a particular eye on here?
Omar (Juve): Zlatan. You guys should watch Zlatan - he’s on form and has scored 5 goals in the last 2 games and he’s ready to rock and roll.
Danilo (Inter): Since Adriano will probably be out, sadly, Obafemi Martins is a player who has beaten Buffon regularly between Serie A games and summer friendlies. Old team mate Cannavaro will be a lot to overcome for him (the slower Thuram shouldn’t be a problem), but Martins in his day can trouble even the likes of Jaap Stam and Alessandro Nesta as the second CL derby showed, although he then found Dida on his way to glory.
GOAL: What are your side’s greatest strengths?
Omar (Juve): Defence , Midfield , Offence everything. Man, on our day we’re untouchables but the greatest has to be the defence.
Danilo (Inter): It seems recently we are beating anyone as long as it isn’t Milan, haha! It’s actually baffling that we’re the highest scoring side in Serie A but haven’t scored in four games against the same opponent. Perhaps it’s psychological. But anyway our attack has some formidable players cold-blooded in front of goal. And although we’ve seen less of it lately, we have a strong reactive power, in that we just keep on playing and always get back at least on level terms if we go behind (derbies excluded).
GOAL: And weaknesses?
Omar (Juve): Sometimes the lack of creativity - we don’t create many chances to score from but that depends on the formation.
Danilo (Inter): An apparent psychological problem with AC Milan and, especially at the beginning of the season, a tendency to let inferior opponents back into games they should have no business wanting to get points from. It’s easy to say “defence”, although it’s of course also that, but then why have we been conceding less and less goals as the season progressed? Because not conceding goals is all about team spirit, about attention on simple details that has thankfully improved since the disastrous beginning of the season.
GOAL: What do your lot typically think of their lot?
Omar (Juve): Honestly I pity them as i think they are a bunch of sad losers.
Danilo (Inter): Not much actually, but beating them feels almost as good as beating AC Milan, but that goes for any team in Italy. As everyone else in Italy we hate Juve for the same reasons, the doping affairs, the refereeing scandals, their luck, their dominance of Serie A football... you know, the lot. Basically we hate them and they’re definitely our number 2 rivals.
GOAL: What single thing irritates you most about them?
Omar (Juve): Moaning about everything but I know they can’t help it they want to believe that Inter is losing because of the referees and that there is a conspiracy on them to make them lose. They don’t wanna see the fact that their team sucks.
Danilo (Inter): Their boring style of play is what annoys me most, everytime I see them playing I wonder how they can possibly be playing for the Scudetto. Watching them against Liverpool, where they were unwatchable, I even wondered how they ever scored goals! No wonder their stadium is always that empty in Serie A games. The only people who like Juventus are their fans, they have no reputation in Europe and abroad teams like Milan, Manchester, Chelsea, Barcelona, etc are much more popular. No single thing then, a lot of things. They are enemies of football and no one is happy when they win except themselves.
GOAL: And what do you grudgingly admire?
Omar (Juve): Their fans to be honest they support Inter and never lost hope. I mean, this must deserve something.
Danilo (Inter): Their ability to win games they don’t deserve to, their always decent defence, and their luck perhaps. And I like Luciano Moggi, their famous transfer “guru”. He’s an amusing old man, though much hated by others, who has tremendous know-how and experience in the football world, and is exactly the kind of powerful, flamboyant shark we don’t have at Inter.
GOAL: Who is your all-time number one hate figure (or object of amusement) from their lot?
Omar (Juve): Javier Zannetti - this guy truly represents them. When I think of inter I think of him but I don’t hate him, but I don’t like him, the guy is Mr.Inter.
Danilo (Inter): Something I forgot to mention is their tendency to purchase players who “hurt” Italy in summer international tournaments. I’m personally still digesting David Trezeguet’s golden goal in the Euro 2000 final, and as If getting him wasn’t enough of an offence they went ahead and bought Zlatan Ibrahimovic, the man who eliminated Italy from Euro 2004. I may be too much of a patriot, but I couldn’t tolerate having both of them in my team. Also Alessio Tacchinardi will always remain an annoying brat who can’t play football... like Gattuso. Luckily we don’t have those kinds of screw-ups in our team.
GOAL: What’s the best bit of business ever done between the two clubs?
Omar (Juve): Cannavaro for Carini i mean it was awesome we got a world class defender for our third goalkeeper and the best thing that even after that they still wanna buy a goalie what a joke.
Danilo (Inter): From their point of view it must be our letting go of Fabio Cannavaro, who’s having perhaps the season of his life there right now (don’t all ex-Inter players?). Honestly otherwise I can’t remember many players coming to us who were at Juve except for Davids, who somehow never fitted in our team and Mancini’s game plan and is looking for a new club now.
GOAL: What’s your fondest memory of past clashes against them?
Omar (Juve): 3 - 0 in the 2002\2003 season that day they got what they deserved.
Danilo (Inter): I remember that about a year and a half ago we lost 5-1 to Arsenal (at home!) in the Champions League on a Tuesday, and then went and beat Juve 3-1 at Delle Alpi the next Saturday, which, best of all, started their downfall in the race for the title, and suddenly got us back into it. Can that kind of thing happen to anyone but Inter? Last season we also beat them at San Siro and coming back in the last few minutes to draw 2-2 after going 2-0 down earlier this season also felt pretty good, as Juve were on a great run at the time and never conceded goals. I actually have pretty darn good memories of our latest games against them! But the first one I mentioned takes the crown.
GOAL: What do you think the score of this match will be, and how will it affect your week?
Omar (Juve): Winning this game is a huge jump to the scudetto all we gonna have to do is to keep the 3 points lead till we meet Milan and get out with a Win or Draw and that’s it. I think Juve will win this time - 2-1, 3-1 to Juve.
Danilo (Inter): It’s hard to choose between a draw and a loss for Inter, as I think Juve’s players will be strongly motivated in this match and won’t allow themselves to get beaten. I hope they can hold out for a draw so hopefully the title race remains exciting. Strange as it may sound, I prefer to see Milan win the title rather than Juventus, although obviously it doesn’t make a huge difference to us. We hope to get a result for our morale and because Juve are always major rivals, but in terms of the standings even a loss won’t change much as a Champions League place seems to be all but in the bag, therefore our motivations might be lower. I’ll go for another 2-2 result, but if we do lose I would be quite disappointed and grouchy the next day I must admit.
...and so to kick-off. Enjoy it, guys...
4/19/2005 3:19:00 AM
Two of Serie A’s giants clash in Turin in midweek, both having endured torrid weeks on the European stage that at least ended with domestic victories. Juventus were knocked out of the Champions League by Liverpool while Inter’s quarter-final against AC Milan was abandoned then forfeit following crowd trouble. So Inter left the Champions League in disgrace but now have an opportunity to restore some pride by beating Serie A leaders Juventus. Goal.com asked a fan from each side to preview this intriguing clash. Omar Sharaf gives the Juve point of view while Danilo Pochini puts things ‘Inter’ perspective…
GOAL: First of all, how do you feel about your side’s campaign so far? Have you been delighted or dismayed by it?
Omar (Juve): It’s early to say but getting out of the CL was a terrible shock, we all expected to win the Liverpool clash easily, now it’s the league that will determine how our season is gonna end.
Danilo (Inter): Our problem is that we inexplicably threw away a lot of straightforward games when we seemed to be cruising, at the beginning of the season. Of course, it had to do with weak defending and a team with many new faces trying to find an identity. But the positive thing is that we almost never lost our heads and often made good comebacks. Also in the second part of the season we’ve been doing as well as any side in Serie A. The loss against Milan in the CL was entirely logical to me and I saw it coming the moment we were drawn against them. That is not the most disappointing aspect of our season. In any case we’ve done much better than last year I think (in the brief, pitiable Zaccheroni era).
GOAL: Tactically, where do you think this match may be won or lost?
Omar (Juve): The midfield, every game is won in the midfield. We have a better midfield and if we play it right we will dominate them like in the first match.
Danilo (Inter): That’s a difficult one. If our attack is firing on all cylinders, preferrably with Adriano in form, we’re unstoppable for anyone, as the San Siro game against Juve showed. Meanwhile Juve’s attack tends to struggle against good defences (i.e. not Lecce). So I think the forward line that has its best night will end up winning the match (or drawing at the last minute, which is always likely with Inter).
GOAL: Which opposition player do you consider to be the greatest threat to your team in this clash?
Omar (Juve): Martins without thinking twice about it. You can mark anyone even Adriano but Martins – woooof! - this guy is fast as a rocket and can create havoc in the opposition defence if he’s on form.
Danilo (Inter): That’s easier: Zlatan Ibrahimovic. Nedved isn’t at his best just yet, Del Piero hasn’t been for years, and Trezeguet is out. What’s more, the gangly Swede scored 5 goals in the last two Serie A games. But while he is clearly Juve’s most in-form striker, it’s not a single player of the team that scares me, but rather their team spirit and motivation for this match, which could be decisive in their Scudetto race (which unfortunately we can’t take part in anymore).
GOAL: Would you want him in your team?
Omar (Juve): Sure thing, he’s very talented and we would make a huge star of him. Inter will just destroy him they don’t know how to handle youngsters and the fact that they have the best youth teams and go spend millions to get old players who’re good at nothing says it all.
Danilo (Inter): Not really because we already have a lot of great goalscorers, and the numbers say we have the best attack in the league. Also I was never a fan of him as a person although he has improved since leaving Ajax.
GOAL: Who from your team should we keep a particular eye on here?
Omar (Juve): Zlatan. You guys should watch Zlatan - he’s on form and has scored 5 goals in the last 2 games and he’s ready to rock and roll.
Danilo (Inter): Since Adriano will probably be out, sadly, Obafemi Martins is a player who has beaten Buffon regularly between Serie A games and summer friendlies. Old team mate Cannavaro will be a lot to overcome for him (the slower Thuram shouldn’t be a problem), but Martins in his day can trouble even the likes of Jaap Stam and Alessandro Nesta as the second CL derby showed, although he then found Dida on his way to glory.
GOAL: What are your side’s greatest strengths?
Omar (Juve): Defence , Midfield , Offence everything. Man, on our day we’re untouchables but the greatest has to be the defence.
Danilo (Inter): It seems recently we are beating anyone as long as it isn’t Milan, haha! It’s actually baffling that we’re the highest scoring side in Serie A but haven’t scored in four games against the same opponent. Perhaps it’s psychological. But anyway our attack has some formidable players cold-blooded in front of goal. And although we’ve seen less of it lately, we have a strong reactive power, in that we just keep on playing and always get back at least on level terms if we go behind (derbies excluded).
GOAL: And weaknesses?
Omar (Juve): Sometimes the lack of creativity - we don’t create many chances to score from but that depends on the formation.
Danilo (Inter): An apparent psychological problem with AC Milan and, especially at the beginning of the season, a tendency to let inferior opponents back into games they should have no business wanting to get points from. It’s easy to say “defence”, although it’s of course also that, but then why have we been conceding less and less goals as the season progressed? Because not conceding goals is all about team spirit, about attention on simple details that has thankfully improved since the disastrous beginning of the season.
GOAL: What do your lot typically think of their lot?
Omar (Juve): Honestly I pity them as i think they are a bunch of sad losers.
Danilo (Inter): Not much actually, but beating them feels almost as good as beating AC Milan, but that goes for any team in Italy. As everyone else in Italy we hate Juve for the same reasons, the doping affairs, the refereeing scandals, their luck, their dominance of Serie A football... you know, the lot. Basically we hate them and they’re definitely our number 2 rivals.
GOAL: What single thing irritates you most about them?
Omar (Juve): Moaning about everything but I know they can’t help it they want to believe that Inter is losing because of the referees and that there is a conspiracy on them to make them lose. They don’t wanna see the fact that their team sucks.
Danilo (Inter): Their boring style of play is what annoys me most, everytime I see them playing I wonder how they can possibly be playing for the Scudetto. Watching them against Liverpool, where they were unwatchable, I even wondered how they ever scored goals! No wonder their stadium is always that empty in Serie A games. The only people who like Juventus are their fans, they have no reputation in Europe and abroad teams like Milan, Manchester, Chelsea, Barcelona, etc are much more popular. No single thing then, a lot of things. They are enemies of football and no one is happy when they win except themselves.
GOAL: And what do you grudgingly admire?
Omar (Juve): Their fans to be honest they support Inter and never lost hope. I mean, this must deserve something.
Danilo (Inter): Their ability to win games they don’t deserve to, their always decent defence, and their luck perhaps. And I like Luciano Moggi, their famous transfer “guru”. He’s an amusing old man, though much hated by others, who has tremendous know-how and experience in the football world, and is exactly the kind of powerful, flamboyant shark we don’t have at Inter.
GOAL: Who is your all-time number one hate figure (or object of amusement) from their lot?
Omar (Juve): Javier Zannetti - this guy truly represents them. When I think of inter I think of him but I don’t hate him, but I don’t like him, the guy is Mr.Inter.
Danilo (Inter): Something I forgot to mention is their tendency to purchase players who “hurt” Italy in summer international tournaments. I’m personally still digesting David Trezeguet’s golden goal in the Euro 2000 final, and as If getting him wasn’t enough of an offence they went ahead and bought Zlatan Ibrahimovic, the man who eliminated Italy from Euro 2004. I may be too much of a patriot, but I couldn’t tolerate having both of them in my team. Also Alessio Tacchinardi will always remain an annoying brat who can’t play football... like Gattuso. Luckily we don’t have those kinds of screw-ups in our team.
GOAL: What’s the best bit of business ever done between the two clubs?
Omar (Juve): Cannavaro for Carini i mean it was awesome we got a world class defender for our third goalkeeper and the best thing that even after that they still wanna buy a goalie what a joke.
Danilo (Inter): From their point of view it must be our letting go of Fabio Cannavaro, who’s having perhaps the season of his life there right now (don’t all ex-Inter players?). Honestly otherwise I can’t remember many players coming to us who were at Juve except for Davids, who somehow never fitted in our team and Mancini’s game plan and is looking for a new club now.
GOAL: What’s your fondest memory of past clashes against them?
Omar (Juve): 3 - 0 in the 2002\2003 season that day they got what they deserved.
Danilo (Inter): I remember that about a year and a half ago we lost 5-1 to Arsenal (at home!) in the Champions League on a Tuesday, and then went and beat Juve 3-1 at Delle Alpi the next Saturday, which, best of all, started their downfall in the race for the title, and suddenly got us back into it. Can that kind of thing happen to anyone but Inter? Last season we also beat them at San Siro and coming back in the last few minutes to draw 2-2 after going 2-0 down earlier this season also felt pretty good, as Juve were on a great run at the time and never conceded goals. I actually have pretty darn good memories of our latest games against them! But the first one I mentioned takes the crown.
GOAL: What do you think the score of this match will be, and how will it affect your week?
Omar (Juve): Winning this game is a huge jump to the scudetto all we gonna have to do is to keep the 3 points lead till we meet Milan and get out with a Win or Draw and that’s it. I think Juve will win this time - 2-1, 3-1 to Juve.
Danilo (Inter): It’s hard to choose between a draw and a loss for Inter, as I think Juve’s players will be strongly motivated in this match and won’t allow themselves to get beaten. I hope they can hold out for a draw so hopefully the title race remains exciting. Strange as it may sound, I prefer to see Milan win the title rather than Juventus, although obviously it doesn’t make a huge difference to us. We hope to get a result for our morale and because Juve are always major rivals, but in terms of the standings even a loss won’t change much as a Champions League place seems to be all but in the bag, therefore our motivations might be lower. I’ll go for another 2-2 result, but if we do lose I would be quite disappointed and grouchy the next day I must admit.
...and so to kick-off. Enjoy it, guys...
