++ [ originally posted by Ibrahimovic9 ] ++
Capello: Del Piero is back Saturday 19 March, 2005
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Alessandro Del Piero was refreshingly honest in his post-match comments and Fabio Capello claimed he was back to his best at last.
“To say our first half was below par would be an understatement,” said the captain after his lone strike beat Reggina. “It was understandable considering the tour de force we’ve been through between Europe and Serie A of late, but we changed our approach in the second half. We realised the opening performance was poor and that we had another 45 minutes to change that.”
There are reports that Del Piero will be dropped from the Italy squad set to face Scotland next week, though this performance might have done enough to convince Marcello Lippi otherwise.
“I have to think about doing well for Juventus, then anything else comes as a result of that. Of course, if I don’t receive the Azzurri call then it’ll be a problem, but I’ll live.”
Fabio Capello was also full of praise for the captain, who earned himself a Man of the Match award for his performance in Turin.
“Del Piero is improving with every game and after the goal we saw the kind of player that earned praise from the world over in his glory days,” said the Coach who has often substituted the star this season.
The statistics certainly back his supporters, as Del Piero is officially the most decisive player in Serie A, as his goals have proven crucial in earning eight wins for the Bianconeri.
“Let us say that we allowed Reggina to play in the first half as we weren’t putting any pressure on them. Gigi Buffon was fantastic in goal to make sure we didn’t pay for those errors. I think that when you are between big games, these so called little ones are the more dangerous.”
The Bianconeri were expected to run riot over Reggina after beating Roma and Real Madrid over the last week, but it proved to be quite a struggle.
“It was another Juventus after the break. This is why football should introduce a time-out! Reggina were playing with one forward and the other ten behind the ball, so I thought we needed two heavy hitters upfront plus Del Piero in support to help break them down. Hitting the crossbar certainly shook the team up and showed them what they could achieve if they tried a little bit harder.”
Zlatan Ibrahimovic has again shown that his finishing leaves something to be desired, but his inspired back-heel set up Del Piero for the winning goal.
“Ibrahimovic has these moments of sheer genius and he knew exactly what he wanted to do at that moment in time.”
Capello refused to comment on the Champions’ League quarter-final, as Juventus have been drawn against Liverpool.
“Before facing Liverpool we’ll have to take on Fiorentina, so we won’t rush into discussing tactics for them,” insisted the Coach.
Reggina boss Walter Mazzarri was angry at his fifth defeat in six games.
"After the 90 minutes we deserved a draw at the very least and I believe that Reggina were having the better of the play when the goal was scored," he insisted.
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