Ranieri: «The best Juve against Bate»
Claudio Ranieri is ready for another “first” in his career as Juve’s Manager: a Champions League away game. A month almost to the day after the draw in Bratislava in the qualifier and two weeks after the win over Zenit, the Bianconeri are in Minsk to face Bate Borisov, the unknown quantity in Group H, the team that could cause a few upsets.
That's why the Belarus team, who are taking part in the top European tournament for the first time, mustn’t be underestimated. Manager Ranieri knows how dangerous they can be and he was clear about this during today's press conference with Alessandro Del Piero: «It's a crucial game; we won the first match so we want to do well in this one too. We have the utmost respect for Bate, they’re a young team, playing their first Champions League home game, and therefore they'll want to do well on their debut in front of their fans».
The Manager then explained what the dangers could be, demonstrating how well he's studied his upcoming opponents: «They were without their two regular strikers in Madrid, but they should be playing this time. Plus they did very well in the qualifiers. They're dangerous when they can play on the counter-attack and they're good on stopped play situations, as they have tall defenders who come up, like they did against Levski Sofia. These are opponents to be respected, that's why I'll be playing the best-possible Juventus line-up. When you play different tournaments, the best-possible side always plays, because the most important match is always the next one».
The Champions League allows everybody to forget the League for a few days. But the two draws in a row are on everybody's lips even thousands of miles from home, particularly the assumption that Juventus are having problems up front. Ranieri sees it this way: «First of all, let's try and separate the League and the Champions League. It's true, the stats say we're not scoring a lot, but the team created many chances, especially against Catania. We're not doing very well in front of goal, but the important thing is that we're not letting many in. Sooner or later the goals will come; I've never worried about this».
*juventus.com
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