Ferrara: «A delicate match»

Ferrara: «A delicate match»

Ciro Ferrara is preparing to lead Juventus for his first time in the Champions league. The coach, strong from a positive outcome of 5 victories in as many matches on the Juventus bench, will find and ex-team mate, Laurent Blanc on the Bordeaux bench: «I have great memories of us as team-mates – underlined Ferrara. We met recently in Nyon and it was a pleasure just like when I got to know he became the Bordeaux coach. There is a relationship of esteem and friendship which binds us». The friendship comes from the years spent on the field together, the esteem from the excellent results obtained up to now by the Frenchman: «They are the champions of France and are unbeaten for over 15 matches. This must make us reflect. Tomorrow, it will not be a normal match for us because it is the first in the Champions League. The first of the group stage always has dangerous twists but we want to do well. What differs compared to the championship? Well, the championship isa long race and a defeat now and then is acceptable but in the Champions League you cannot afford to lose. Our objective at the moment is to qualify from the group stage and to do so we must not drop any precious points. Therefore the match is much more delicate from this point of view».

For tomorrow’s match, Ferrara will have Zebina back but will not be able to count on Del Piero or Diego after the latter was forced to leave the field due to an injury during the match against Lazio: «Del Piero is continuing to work and when he will not feel any more pain he will be available while Diego has had good news. We had been worried after having seen him leave the field but the tests showed it is not a big problem. We will see if we can have him back by the end of the week or for the match against Genoa».

The Brazilian will be substituted by Sebastian Giovinco: «I am satisfied with all those who played against Lazio and even with him. There is no question anymore about whether he has matured. If he is part of this squad it is because we believe in his qualities and he has all the possibility to show them. A player must always take advantage of the occasions he is given. I read somewhere that I would not have fielded him when Diego was injured. This is not true. The simple truth is that Seba joined after the others due to his commitments with the Under 21 squad but I have always fielded him when he was available. Tiago as playmaker? He could adapt to that role, just like Camoranesi, but I do not want to go against the characteristics of the players. At the start of the season I said I did not want to put too much responsibility on one player and neither did I want to construct a team around one player. Juventsu, at the moment, is having positive feedback especially from the players who come on to the field after the start of the match and who are winning us points and this should be one of the strong points throughout the season».

Ferrara warned his players with regards to the next opponents: «Bordeaux is a team with important points of reference such as Gourcuff, Chamakh (who is very good when it comes to heading the ball and giving the ball to his mates), or Wendel who has great technique. They are well organized, they all defend, are clever at building up the action rapidly and have players like Diarra o Caini who are good from set-pieces and therefore we will have to be careful even when it comes to inactive balls».

The most renown player of Bordeaux is in fact Gourcuff who, after having managed to gain himself an important role with Milan, has become even more the start of the French team. This fact may bring to light the difficulty Italian football has in launching young players: «Sometimes players who arrive in Italy at a young age find it hard and for Gourcuff this was the case especially in a team like Milan. Some players manage to express themselves better in their own country and this seems to be the case: Gourcuff had shown he possessed great technical qualities but managed to find continuity in his country. With regards to the capability of launching youngsters it seems to me that Juventus has done so allowing them to reach high levels».

*juventus.com