TURIN (ITALPRESS) – Forget Napoli, beat Benfica and try to avoid a tough pairing in the play-offs. That’s the triple mission awaiting Juve at the Stadium tomorrow on the final day of the Champions League phase. Standings in hand, today the Bianconeri would risk finding Bayern or Real in the next round. “We will go on the field without making calculations and to win the game,” Thiago Motta made clear on the eve of the match, “We will face a team with very experienced players, who have quality, who have won important things. But we’re at home, it’s a Champions game and we want to play a great match to get the win.” Juve comes from their first defeat of the season in the league “but Naples in recent years has been a difficult field for everyone,” he notes, “We had a great opportunity to win after a good first half but in the second we went down and when we go down we suffer. We have to keep in mind and give continuity to the first half in Naples and not make the mistakes of the second.” Mouth shut on the possible return of Vlahovic among the starters: “You’ll see tomorrow. Dusan is fine as is the rest of the group. We face a strong team with great technical quality and we have to be careful even when we attack because they are very good on the counterattack, it was also seen with Barcelona.” Cambiaso will be missing. “He had this problem with his ankle, he had returned to the group but he doesn’t feel 100 percent and he preferred to take some time to heal this discomfort completely.” “Giuntoli and Scanavino present at training? The club is always close to me and the team, we are serene in the context where the requirement of a big club like Juve is to get to victory. Sometimes we succeed and sometimes we don’t and we cannot be satisfied. We have to continue to work with maximum effort as we are doing. We always want to win, sometimes we do a great job and we get the win, and sometimes we do a good job and we don’t succeed.” Motta then defends Koopmeiners from criticism, “There is no finger pointing here. He has given so much so far and will continue to give so much. Then when the team works, individuals come out and we can all improve, me first, and that’s why we work every day at our best to raise our level. I’m happy with him and all the others for their commitment and how they are approaching their work.” No response instead to Danilo’s controversial farewell: “I thank him for everything he has done for this team and I wish him the best for the future.” Also at the press conference with Motta was Francisco Conceicao. “When we don’t win it is always difficult but we are within a process, we have a very young team, we want to win and we know that slowly we have to raise the level and improve things. We are convinced that wins will come naturally given how we train and the quality we have. We are already with our heads on tomorrow’s game, to have a great match and get the three points. Benfica is a strong team that likes to have the ball. They have quality players and we have to be ready to do our best to get the three points.” The Portuguese outfielder has now left behind the physical problems that affected him at the beginning of the year: “I feel ready for tomorrow to help the team,” assures the former Porto man, for whom “the internal competition is positive, it pushes us every day to give our best. We want to prove in training every day our qualities, and the competitive level of the squad helps both ourselves and the team to become stronger.” Returning to the challenge with Benfica, “Champions is a competition that everyone wants to play, tomorrow is an important game for us and the club, we want to respond convincingly and get the victory.”- photo Ipa Agency -(ITALPRESS).
