SOCCER/Euroscene: When Juventus line out at the new Allianz Arena in Munich tonight for arguably the biggest Champions League tie of the week against Bayern, one of international football's most celebrated names may well be sitting on the substitutes' bench.
Alessandro Del Piero, otherwise known as Il Pinturrichio in deference to the Renaissance maestro, has been spending a lot of time on the bench recently.
These days, Juventus coach Fabio Capello considers him to be his third choice striker behind Frenchman David Trezeguet and Swede Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
Worse still for 30-year-old Del Piero is the fact that Marcello Lippi, his former coach at Juventus and the man now in charge of Italy's World Cup squad, also considers him a third or fourth choice behind such as Alberto Gilardino, Francesco Totti, Luca Toni, Vincenzo Iaquinta, Christian Vieri et al.
For a change, though, Del Piero was allowed off the bench last week for both Italy and Juventus.
With Italy having secured a World Cup finals place with a game in hand, coach Lippi opted to give the "reserves" a run-out in Italy's final and meaningless group game against Moldova in Lecce last Wednesday.
Del Piero came back into the Italian team in ideal circumstances, in a pressure free match against relatively modest opponents.
Furthermore, with Totti out through suspension, the onus to provide the creative playmaking sat fairly and squarely on his shoulders.
Del Piero responded to the call in the best possible manner, running the Italian game from his position just behind the front pairing of Vieri and Iaquinta. He took on players, he set up a goal for Vieri, he hit the crossbar with a piledriver of a free kick and he was rarely off the ball in an unexpectedly aggressive performance.
By and large, for one night at least, Del Piero managed to look like a reasonable replica of the astonishingly talented 19-year-old whose arrival at Juventus 10 years ago was enough to persuade the club that they could sell Roberto Baggio to make room for him.
Lest we thought that to be merely a last hurrah, Del Piero was at it again on Saturday night, scoring the winning goal for Juventus in their 1-0 Serie A win over Sicilian side Messina. On this occasion, Del Piero robbed the ball from Messina's Ivory Coast defender Marco Zoro just on the halfway line before making a majestic run past two defenders for another reminder of the good old days.
Despite his good form of the last week, though, Del Piero may well find that coach Capello opts to start with Ibrahimovic and Trezeguet against Bayern tonight. In reality, the fact that Del Piero started against Messina on Saturday was probably due to the proximity of the Bayern clash, with Capello opting to rest key players such as Trezeguet and the Italo-Argentine Mauro Camoranesi.
Del Piero's role of "reserve" is testimony to the strength of this season's Juventus side which, thanks partly to the arrival of Frenchman Patrick Vieira, looks stronger than ever. Vieira is ruled out of tonight's game by a groin strain but, even in his absence (he will probably be replaced by Giuliano Giannichedda), Juventus ought to have every chance of continuing an impressive seasonal start that has seen them win their opening nine matches (seven in Serie A and two in the Champions League).
Bayern coach Felix Magath inevitably sees things rather differently. Even if Juventus won both ties 1-0 against Bayern at the same stage of the competition last season, Magath insists that his side were the better team over the 180 minutes, admitting only that Juventus were the sharper side when it came to taking their chances.
Magath may be right but what is sure is that with seven wins, one draw and one loss in their opening nine league games, Bayern have not made quite the same start as Juventus.
Currently second on goal difference behind Werder Bremen in the Bundesliga, Bayern were probably unlucky when held to a 1-1 draw away to Schalke 04 on Saturday with Schalke scoring their equaliser through a controversial late penalty. Magath can at least count on talisman midfielder Michael Ballack (soon to join Manchester United?) as well as French defenders Bixente Lizarazu and Willy Sagnol, all back from injury but he will be without injured German international Philipp Lahm.
If and when Bayern cause Juventus problems, there is, however, the sobering consideration that coach Capello does have a pretty useful card to play in the shape of Del Piero on the subs' bench. After all, who scored both goals in Juve's 1-0 home and away wins against Bayern last season? Yep, Del Piero it was.
