Ranieri: «Against Bologna to turn a new leaf»

Ranieri: «Against Bologna to turn a new leaf»

There is no time to reflect upon the Champions League adventure. Three days after the good but unlucky performance against Chelsea, Juventus is back in the championship. For the fourth consecutive Saturday, the bianconeri will be playing on Saturday.

Having beaten Palermo, Napoli and Torino, Ranieri’s team will be trying to land a poker against Bologna. «We will be playing against a team who gained more points at home rather then away thanks to their counter-attacks. Mihajlovic has made everybody responsible but we must beware mostly of Di Vaio. I am happy for him for what he is achieving. He is a great guy and he has won back the consistency that had landed him a place at Juventus. We must try to stop him, allowing only bad balls to get to him».

At the Olimpico Juventus will therefore be hosting an opponent which is ready to do anything to win points against relegation. This is not the best opponent to face after a great effort during the week and many absences (the latest those of Amauri and Trezeguet). It will be a hurdle to jump in order to proceed with the title race: «For us, this match will be fundamental especially on a psychological level – confirmed Ranieri -, we must show that we managed to turn over a new leaf after the Champions League. We were busy on an international level, we left a good impression but now we must return to Italy and do well. The title race? We will not think of what the others will do on Sunday just like we did not do so on Tuesday, even though I must say I am very sorry all the Italian teams were eliminated even though I never thought that the English teams were much superior».

There is however, another aspect of the elimination against Chelsea which has rendered Mr Ranieri disappointed: the statements given by Trezeguet at the end of the match by which he complained publicly with regards to having been substituted: «We were one man down and were not managing to surround Chelsea and that is why I inserted a player with different characteristics. On the eve of the match David was fresher then Amauri and this is why I gave him the possibility of playing for 80 minutes. A player who has been out for 4 months should not have felt the way he did but should have been happy of having been given the possibility of playing in the most important match. His words bothered me because he did not tell me but the newspapers and these are things that should be kept within the dressing rooms. Tomorrow he will not be playing due to muscle strain».

* juventus.com