Claudio Ranieri not brimming with hope in return with Chelsea
Tuesday, 10 March 2009
(Wed morning)
Claudio Ranieri may have lost a war of words about the use of proper English, but his message was clear enough as he reflected on an unconvincing victory in the Turin derby. Juventus’s 1-0 defeat of Torino at the Olympic Stadium on Saturday kept Ranieri’s team seven points behind Inter Milan but did little to suggest that they will overcome Chelsea tomorrow in the Champions League.
“This is not the Juventus of three or four years ago and we are rebuilding,” Ranieri said. “It’s a huge game for us, but we are the underdogs.”
Ranieri, wisely, did not prolong his media spat with José Mourinho, the Inter coach, who mocked his rival’s inability to master English during his tenure at Stamford Bridge. Mourinho claimed that Ranieri had trouble saying “good morning” and “good afternoon” by the time he left and it is obvious how difficult the erstwhile “Tinkerman” believes it will be to say goodbye to Chelsea by overturning a 1-0 deficit.
On Saturday, in a 27,000-seat stadium that was not filled for the derby against struggling Torino, Ranieri rested the likes of Alessandro Del Piero and David Trezeguet and started with Pavel Nedved and Mohamed Sissoko on the bench. Sissoko went on with six minutes to go and sustained a metatarsal injury to his left foot that will keep him sidelined for at least two months.
Giorgio Chiellini, who headed the solitary goal, said: “Percentages? Let us say 51 for Chelsea and 49 for us.” Ranieri accepts that the Serie A crown is still a distant dream, raising the stakes for tomorrow night.
“I hope they are beatable,” he said. “We have a lot of respect for Chelsea and will try until the end. Hiddink is a great manager, but sooner or later he has to lose.”
Ranieri has expressed his surprise at the departure of Luiz Felipe Scolari from Chelsea, suggesting that his former employers are trigger-happy club to rival the most impatient in Italy and Spain, but he knows that the interim manager has already sprinkled some gold dust on the squad.
“Chelsea are a very good team and Hiddink knows the job around the world,” Ranieri said. “Scolari and Mourinho played the way he plays. It’s normal for him to play 4-3-3, so not a lot has changed, just the mentality. Scolari played a little more possession on ball, Hiddink more directly. The organisation has maybe changed, but it’s roughly the same.”
Juventus’s form is erratic, wins in the past three league games interspersed with losses in the domestic and European cups by Lazio and Chelsea.
