Ranieri: Juve ready for Europe

Ranieri: Juve ready for Europe
Tuesday 12 August, 2008

Claudio Ranieri insists Juventus are ready to dive back into the Champions League. “We’ve been waiting two years for this moment.”

The 1996 winners and 2003 finalists have been out of Europe since their 2006 demotion in the Calciopoli scandal, working their way back into the top flight and third place.

They have the opportunity to qualify for the competition proper by taking on Artmedia Bratislava in the preliminary round tomorrow evening.

“We’ve been waiting two years for our return to the Champions League,” smiled the Coach.

“We are ready and the lads have exactly the right amount of determination. For many of them, this match is the crowning moment of two years of sacrifices and nobody wants to waste this chase, even if we respect our opponents.”

Juve are undoubtedly the favourites to go through, but have to reshuffle their midfield with news that Cristiano Zanetti and Marco Marchionni are out injured for a month and Pavel Nedved is suspended.

Add to that the three youngsters currently on international duty at the Olympics – Sebastian Giovinco, Claudio Marchisio and Paolo De Ceglie – and Ranieri has few alternatives.

“I am certain that the replacements will play equally well. It is logical that a Coach wants to reach an important appointment with everyone at his disposal, but this is part of football. I more or less already have the team in my head.”

Artmedia qualified for this stage by defeating Tampere United 7-3 on aggregate and before then La Valletta.

“We have a lot of respect for this team. They have already scored 10 goals in the preliminary round and two years ago did very well in the Champions League.

“They thumped Celtic 5-0 and won 3-2 away to Porto. Besides, you don’t win a League and domestic cup on a fluke. I saw some of the Slovakian matches and they have four or five truly interesting players.

“There are two games to play in this round and the worst mistake we could make would be to assume the Champions League is already in our grasp.

“This is why I don’t think any result in this first leg will leave us ‘relaxed’ for the trip to Bratislava. What would happen if we failed to qualify? We’d play the UEFA Cup.”

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