Image Source : AP Juventus’ Cristiano Ronaldo sits on the bottom throughout a Serie A soccer match between Inter Milan and Juventus on the San Siro stadium in Milan, Italy, Sunday, Jan. 17
Rarely has a coach’s job trusted the Italian Super Cup, however hardly ever has Juventus acquired off to a worse begin to the season over the previous decade.
The match showcasing the Serie A and Italian Cup champions is generally thought to be little greater than a pleasant. It was the normal season curtain-raiser in August however has been performed in December or January a number of instances over the previous few seasons.
Anything however a convincing win for Andrea Pirlo’s Juventus over Napoli may spell the start of the tip of his transient time in cost.
Eyebrows have been raised when the 41-year-old Pirlo was given the reins at Juventus firstly of August, handing the previous midfield maestro his first-ever teaching job.
And for now, the doubters are being proved proper.
Pirlo was tasked with turning Juventus right into a extra engaging facet and ending the membership’s quarter-century look ahead to Champions League success.
The Bianconeri weren’t anticipated to falter in Serie A, which they’ve dominated for the previous 9 seasons.
Juventus misplaced 2-0 at bitter rival Inter Milan on Sunday to go away it fifth, seven factors under the Milan sides, which lead the standings.
The Juventus swagger, created by successful 9 successive Serie A titles and being the crew to beat in Italy for thus lengthy, is gone and instead is doubt and even concern.
“When you go out onto the field anxious and scared everything becomes more difficult,” Pirlo stated.
“We couldn’t have put in a worse performance than this but now we need to pick ourselves up because we’ve got a cup final on Wednesday.”
The loss was solely Juve’s second within the league this season, however comes lower than a month after a dreadful 3-0 reverse at residence to Fiorentina.
Moreover, Juventus is drawing matches it might have beforehand gained and is 9 factors worse off than it was after 17 matches final season underneath Maurizio Sarri. The stress to succeed at Juve is intense. Sarri was closely criticized in his one season — and he gained the league title.
Such is the issue that even the gamers appear resigned. Cristiano Ronaldo was a shadow of his normal self at San Siro on Sunday and will solely set free a rueful smile when Inter scored its second aim.
Juventus captain Giorgio Chiellini admitted that the Bianconeri’s domination of Italian soccer could possibly be coming to an finish.
“Time passes for everyone. Cycles sometimes end, we are trying in every possible way to ensure it continues,” Chiellini stated Sunday night time. “Succeeding in successful a tenth successive league title could be one thing unbelievable: it gained’t be straightforward however we try in each attainable means.
“We’ve got a cup final to play in three days, so we need to recover — we can’t let this result floor us.”
Juventus has gained the Super Cup a document eight instances. It misplaced to Napoli within the 2014 version.
Gennaro Gattuso’s Napoli head into the match in Reggio Emilia in a really completely different temper, having thumped Fiorentina 6-0 on Sunday.
