At first glance, Manchester United would be entitled to take heart from the miserable Juventus performance in their 1-0 defeat on Saturday by Empoli, the bottom side in Serie A. After all, hapless Empoli had not won a match for four months. On second thoughts, however, this Juventus performance was too bad to be true. The Juventus which travels to Old Trafford for Wednesday's Champions League first leg, semi-final tie is sure to be a different side, both in attitude and personnel. The current Juventus side may not be up to the standards of the past three seasons, but they are certainly stronger than this result suggests.
For most of the week, Juventus coach Carlo Ancelotti had been saying that the Empoli game mattered a great deal since it offered the chance to pick up vital points in their struggle to get back into the Champions League, top-four zone of the Serie A table (Juventus currently languish in seventh place, 15 points behind leaders Lazio).
That was the theory. But the nature of the side fielded by Ancelotti on Saturday suggested his major concern was to rest weary limbs in view of much more important business at Manchester. Already deprived, through injury or suspension, of Frenchman Zinedine Zidane, Dutch midfielder Edgar Davids, Uruguyan defender Paolo Montero and defender Mark Iuliano, Juventus further reduced their offensive potential on Saturday by resting midfielders Antonio Conte and Gianluca Pessotto as well as strikers Filippo Inzaghi and Nicola Amoruso.
The de facto `Juventus B', comprising reserves such as Frenchman Jocelyn Blanchard, Croat Igor Tudor, Simone Perrotta and Uruguyan Daniel Fonseca, failed to perform on a warm spring afternoon, going under to a relatively soft 26th minute goal from Empoli defender Stefano Bianconi who had been allowed to rise totally unchallenged to head in a free kick from striker Arturo Di Napoli. From then on, Juventus huffed and puffed a bit but not even the second half introduction of Inzaghi, Conte and Amoruso could set things right. Speaking afterwards, Ancelotti offered not excuses, but rather a candid admission.
"Our minds were elsewhere. We got this game wrong, from the mental approach. I picked players who I thought were fresh. . . but instead there was a general lack of tension."
"Elsewhere," of course, is called Old Trafford. With a view to Wednesday, Saturday's game means little and the most interesting information gleaned concerned the cautious club optimism that Zidane may be fit for Old Trafford, while Uruguyan Montero will not. Zidane has not played since twisting his knee in Juventus's 1-1 Champions League draw with Greek side Olympiakos on March 17th.
EMPOLI: Sereni; Fusco, Bianconi, Camara, Lucenti, Cribari, Pane, Morrone, Tonetto, Martusciello, Di Napoli. Subs: Bonomi for Cribari (81 mins), Bisoli for Pane (88 mins), Cerbone for Di Napoli (73 mins).
JUVENTUS: Peruzzi; Birindelli, Ferrara, Tudor, Di Livio, Blanchard, Deschamps, Tacchinardi, Perrotta, Fonseca, Esnaider. Subs: Inzaghi for Blanchard (45 mins), Amoruso for Esnaider (45 mins), Conte for Perrotta (63 mins).
