Ranieri & Buffon talk

Ranieri: «The early goal conditioned the game»

After several matches decided early on in Juventus’ favour, at Siena the first half proved fatal instead. A goal by Kharja (a stunner or a lucky shot?) favoured the Tuscans' game, so they were able to play the match they wanted.

Claudio Ranieri considers that episode after 6 minutes the key to the whole game: «The whole match was influenced by that early goal; I don't even know if he really wanted to make such a shot. We made a lot of mistakes, but we still created several chances, maybe we just weren't clear-headed enough when it came to the last pass in front of goal. On the other hand, we had a lot of corner kicks. The performance was there, the result wasn’t. We didn’t play like a content team that didn't even try, the tough thing was facing opponents that almost exclusively played in defence after they scored, and only tried going on the counter-attack occasionally».

Buffon: «They had stronger motivations»

Seven days after the wide win against Lazio, the post-match comments are exactly reversed. Just like the 5-2 drubbing against the Romans was due to the Bianconeri's stronger motivations, the same can be said after the K.O. suffered at Siena. The slim chances to reach second place were less strong than the Tuscans' desire to mathematically avoid relegation today.

This was Gigi Buffon's theory in an interview with Juventus Channel after the game: «They deserved to win, they believed in it more, they had a better attitude and they wanted to win more than us. Perhaps the result in Genoa didn't help us. In these last games of the season motivation is everything and they approached the game better than us. Kharja's goal? Maybe there was a foul on Chiellini. In any case he did well and he was lucky in getting such a shot in, impossible to save, considering he shot almost from the ground. He'd already scored against me when he was at Roma, I'll put him in my little black book…». (huehuehuehue)

*juventus.com