Serie A Blog: Milan will have to ‘spit blood’ while Juventus will ‘pedal like crazy’

Struggling Fiorentina leave the Rossoneri red-faced with a last-minute win in the San Siro as Juve hit the front again with victory in Sicily.

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Serie A Blog: Milan will have to ‘spit blood’ while Juventus will ‘pedal like crazy’

Struggling Fiorentina leave the Rossoneri red-faced with a last-minute win in the San Siro as Juve hit the front again with victory in Sicily.

Juventus coach Antonio Conte was in a bullish mood in advance of this weekend’s round of Serie A games. Last weekend he had watched his Juventus side take advantage of Milan’s slip-up against in-form Sicilian outfit Catania by comprehensively defeating a weary looking Napoli side 3-0 at the Juventus Stadium, thereby cutting Milan’s lead at the top from four to two points.

“We have to continue to look ahead,” Conte told Gazzetta dello Sport. “AC Milan will need to sweat each Sunday for the Scudetto and they will have to spit blood until the end.

“This is a crucial time in the season and I don’t want any relaxation from my players. We have to give everything we have in our remaining eight games.

“If a team does finish above us in the standings then we will be the first to applaud them, but so far no-one has been able to beat us.”

Juventus travelled to Sicily to face Palermo on Saturday which, on paper, looked a more difficult assignment than that which faced Milan, a home tie against a Fiorentina side hovering a little too close for comfort to the relegation places.

But an 89th-minute right-footed strike by La Viola’s Carvalho Amauri delivered a 2-1 win and three much-needed points for Delio Rossi’s Fiorentina, lifting them five points clear of the relegation zone.

Juventus then took the field against Palmermo at the Stadio Renzo Barbera later that evening knowing victory would enable them to regain the lead at the top of the table which they had held for much of the season. Leonardo Bonucci and Fabio Quagliarella repeated their goal-scoring exploits of the previous week as both were both on target in the second half of a one-sided game.

This win left the Bianconeri a point clear at the summit and coach Conte has expressed his preference to be in the lead in the race for the Scudetto.

“I always prefer to lead because that way you depend on nobody except yourself,” Conte told reporters after the win at the Stadio Renzo Barbera.

“We did well to take advantage of Milan’s two recent slip-ups. There are still seven rounds to go and we have a tougher fixture list, but we also gained belief and are improving day after day.

“We wanted to get on this bicycle, so now we’ve got to pedal like crazy to the bitter end. I know it’s better to be in front, because as a player and a coach I have been in these situations.

“The hierarchy has changed with this result, but we have to stay determined and concentrated to finish ahead of a superpower like Milan,” he concluded.

Allegri feels the heat

Meanwhile Milan coach Massimiliano Allegri feels the criticism of his Milan side is unwarranted and blames a heavy fixture schedule, a loss to Barcelona and an early kick-off time for their recent poor results – which makes a change from the usual managerial excuse of poor refereeing decisions and first-team injuries.

“There’s too much negativity surrounding us, nothing is lost,” said Allegri. “It’s excessive to say that Juventus are unbeatable and can kill the title race.

“There’s still a long way to go but a lot of criticisms are raining down on us although we still have a great chance of winning the league. There are still seven games to go and if Juve had a good chance of winning when they were two points behind us then now that we’re one behind we have even more chances.

“We paid for the efforts we made against Barcelona,” he said. “On Saturday we played at 3pm with a relatively high temperature, we slipped up but that can happen.

Former Milan and current Juventus star Andrea Pirlo expressed his surprise at the Milan result and how it gave his side extra encouragement as they took the field in Palermo: “We had not expected AC Milan to slip up, especially when they took the lead. In Palermo, when we found out the result, we went on to the pitch really motivated.

“Now everything depends on us. We want to continue our dream, thinking big. But we will take one game at a time as something can always go wrong. I still think we have a 50-50 chance”.

Milan appear to have an easier run-in but Juventus will have the advantage of knowing how Milan have fared before they (Juventus) take the field for the next two games as Juventus play on Wednesday/Sunday compared to Milan’s Tuesday/Saturday schedule.

In addition, this Juventus side exhibit the character of their manager and will not fail for lack of desire or effort.

As Pirlo himself said: “We got back late from Palermo and at 10am we were already out on the pitch. But we would be happy to sleep half as much and work twice as much in order to achieve our goal”.

With Conte on the sidelines and Pirlo on the pitch, Ibra’s 9^th league title in a row is suddenly looking less certain.

Results

AC Milan 1-2 Fiorentina, Atalanta 1-2 Siena, Cagliari 2-2 Inter, Cesena 0-0 Bologna, Chievo Verona 3-2 Catania, Lecce 4-2 AS Roma, Novara 1-1 Genoa, Udinese 3-1 Parma, Palermo 0-2 Juventus, Lazio 3-1 Napoli

Fixtures

Tuesday, April 10

Chievo Verona 0-1 AC Milan

Wednesday, April 11

AS Roma v Udinese

Catania v Lecce

Fiorentina v Palermo

Genoa v Cesena

Inter v Siena

Juventus v Lazio (Live Setanta Ireland 19.45)

Napoli v Atalanta

Parma v Novara