NAPLES (ITALPRESS) – “We hope that it can be a challenge that can count for something and have an important value both for Juve and for us. Today it is early to say. We start on two different levels. There are 18 points to make up from last year but there is on their side and ours the desire for revenge. I don’t think Juve can be satisfied with finishing third, just as we cannot think of being 40 points behind Inter.” So says Napoli coach Antonio Conte, two days ahead of Saturday’s early match at home to Juventus. “We start from two different levels but we hope that in the return leg we can speak having more certainties in hand. Every test is an examination. It was in Cagliari. Sometimes it can be a tactical, technical or temperamental exam beyond who is in front,” added Coach Conte, who is well aware of the rivalry between the two fans and the two teams, also because he has already experienced this when he was on the other side. “It is inevitable that my history is linked to Juventus. Thirteen years as a player where we won everything and I was also captain. Then I had the chance to do three years as coach in a difficult period opening a cycle of success. I am part of Juve’s history because of what I did. It is inevitable that as a soccer player it is easier to choose your team. Bruscolotti, Maldini, Baresi, Totti did it. Then you start your coaching career and it’s hard to choose. I went to other clubs. I always honored my role, becoming the first to defend the colors of these teams.” The past is Juve, the present is the Neapolitan blue. “As a man of the South I have immense pleasure in coaching Napoli, but for me it will be a thrill to return to the Stadium, it will be the first time with the fans. It will also be in several years when I will face Napoli again as an opponent, but I hope in quite a while,” added Conte, who then turned his thoughts to Totò Schillaci, who died yesterday at the age of 59. “For us in the South, Totò represented the example of someone who had made it. It is a great sorrow. I met him the first year at Juventus, I was in my first experience and he was already a very established player. He was always available. For me there at Juventus they were all champions, I used to call him a ‘voì in the sense of respect. But he was a very humble person.”
– Photo Ipa Agency –
(ITALPRESS).
