APPIANO GENTILE – There’s always an extra edge to the pre-match build-up when there’s a Juventus v Inter match around the corner. Roberto Mancini is certainly no stranger to this fixture, and was under no illusions as to the importance of the match as he took questions from the assembled press this lunchtime.
“It’ll be a tough match because Juventus have been doing well in recent years. It’s a classic match in Italian football and, in these games, if you maintain your concentration you can beat anyone. We’re Inter – we’re a big club – and we play every match to win. We might not always end up on the winning side, but it’s important to have a certain mentality.
“Getting a result in such a big match would give the team a massive boost. When the time comes tomorrow, I don’t want to see a team that goes out onto the pitch thinking it’s an impossible task. I don’t think there is the distance between Juventus and Inter that the league standings of the last few years would seem to indicate,” stated Mancini.
The Nerazzurri coach was then asked whether it would be more important to contain Andrea Pirlo or Carlos Tevez: “Pirlo is their best player. He has incredible quality and all their play goes through him. Tevez is a real fighter and is very dangerous on the attack. Having said that, we need to be wary of all their players, because Juventus are a great team. We’ll have to play the perfect match to win tomorrow.”
There were then a series of questions about individual members of Mancini’s squad, including imminent arrival Lukas Podolski: “He’s not yet been able to train with us, but if the transfer does go through in time he’ll be on the bench. Palacio? He’s still carrying an ankle injury, but in my eyes he’s getting a lot better.
“Hernanes can play in any position across the midfield. The most important thing is that he’s fully fit and that’s not been the case in the last month. Vidic? He’s not been playing because of fitness problems. He’s improving now and may get some more chances over the coming weeks,” explained the Inter boss.
It wouldn’t be January without a word or two on transfer business, and the inevitable questions soon arrived: “We needed two wide players and Podolski is one of them. He’s 29 years old and has a wealth of experience so I hope he can make a telling contribution to the team. Shaqiri is another who could do a job for us, but he’s a Bayern Munich player. He’s a young guy so it’s an interesting one for the future, too.
“Lavezzi? Look, he’s a PSG player and I think that’s a difficult one for us. I don’t know what’s going to happen, so let’s see. Susic is a young player with great quality – he has a big future ahead of him,” concluded Mancini.
Here are the probable formations for the Italian Serie A Week 17 games on Monday 5 and Tuesday 6 January 2015. These are the first games for the New Year 2015 resuming the Serie A after the Christmas Break. =================================
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Monday 5 January 2015
Serie A Week 17 / 17ª Giornata Andata
LAZIO – SAMPDORIA
Olimpico di Roma Stadium
Referee: CALVARESE
Assistants: MELI – GALLONI
Fourth Official: DI LIBERATORE
ADD1: RUSSO
ADD2: MERCHIORI
20:45
Here is the probable formation for Lazio (4-3-3): Marchetti; Basta, De Vrij, Cana, Radu; Parolo, Ledesma, Lulic; Felipe Anderson, Djordjevic, Mauri.
Here is the probable formation for Sampdoria (4-3-1-2):Viviano; Cacciatore, Gastaldello, Romagnoli, Regini; Rizzo, Palombo, Obiang; Soriano; Okaka, Eder.
Unavailable: Mesbah, De Silvestri
Disciplinary Situation BEFORE the game: No suspended players
Tuesday 6 January 2015
UDINESE – AS ROMA
Friuli Stadium
Referee: GUIDA
Assistants: MARZALONI – CRISPO
Fourth Official: PAGANESSI
ADD1: TAGLIAVENTO
ADD2: MARESCA
12:30
Disciplinary Situation BEFORE the game. 2 suspended players for UDINESE: Heurtaux (1), Pinzi (1)
No suspended players for AS ROMA.
Here is the probable formation for Udinese (3-5-1-1): Karnezis; Danilo, Domizzi, Piris; Widmer, Allan, Guilherme, Kone, Pasquale; Fernandes; Di Natale. Unavailable: Muriel, Wague (Coppa d’Africa), Badu (Coppa d’Africa), Evangelista, Zapata
Here is the probable formation for AS Roma (4-3-3): De Sanctis; Maicon, Manolas, Astori, Holebas; Pjanic, De Rossi, Nainggolan; Iturbe, Totti, Ljajic. Unavailable: Ucan, Skorupski, Gervinho e Keita (Coppa d’Africa), Balzaretti, Castan
Disciplinary Situation BEFORE the game. 1 suspended player for CHIEVO VERONA: Botta (2)
1 suspended player for TORINO: Moretti (1)
Here is the probable formation for Chievo Verona (4-4-2): Bizzarri; Frey, Dainelli, Cesar, Zukanovic; Birsa, Izco, Cofie, Hetemaj; Paloschi, Meggiorini. Unavailable: Gamberini, Radovanovic
Here is the probable formation for Torino (3-5-2): Gillet; Maksimovic, Glik, Gaston Silva; Peres, Vives, Gazzi, El Kaddouri, Darmian; Quagliarella, Martinez.
Disciplinary Situation BEFORE the game. No suspended players for EMPOLI.
1 suspended player for HELLAS VERONA: Marquez (1)
Here is the probable formation for Empoli (4-3-1-2): Sepe; Hysaj, Tonelli, Rugani, Mario Rui; Vecino, Valdifiori, Croce; Verdi; Tavano, Maccarone.
Unavailable: Guarente, Laurini, Periticone
Here is the probable formation for Hellas Verona (3-5-2): Benussi; Moras, Sorensen, Rodriguez; Martic, Christodoulopoulos, Tachtsidis, Hallfredsson, Brivio; Nico Lopez, Nenè. Unavailable: Ionita, Obbadi, Jankovic, Gomez
GENOA – ATALANTA
Luigi Ferraris Stadium
Referee: IRRATI
Assistants: VUOTO – RANGHETTI
Fourth Official: DI FIORE
ADD1: ROCCHI
ADD2: DI PAOLO
15:00
Disciplinary Situation BEFORE the game. 1 suspended player for GENOA: Perotti (3)
1 suspended player for ATALANTA: Cigarini (1)
Here is the probable formation for Genoa (3-4-3): Perin; Roncaglia, Burdisso, De Maio; Sturaro, Rincon, Bertolacci, Antonelli; Lestienne, Matri, Iago.
Unavailable: Marchese
Here is the probable formation for Atalanta (4-4-1-1): Sportiello; Zappacosta, Benalouane, Stendardo, Dramè; Molina, Baselli, Carmona, Gomez; Moralez; Denis.
Unavailable: Cherubin, Estigarribia, Raimondi
AC MILAN – SASSUOLO
San Siro Stadium
Referee: DI BELLO
Assistants: PRETI – DE PINTO
Fourth Official: VIVENZI
ADD1: MAZZOLENI
ADD2: FABBRI
15:00
Disciplinary Situation BEFORE the game. 3 suspended players for AC MILAN: Mexes (1), Armero (1), De Jong (1)
No suspended players for SASSUOLO.
Here is the probable formation for AC Milan (4-3-3): Diego Lopez; Rami, Zapata, Alex, De Sciglio; Poli, Muntari, Montolivo; Bonaventura, Menez, El Shaarawy. Unavailable: Van Ginkel, Albertazzi, Bonera, Honda
Here is the probable formation for Sassuolo (4-3-3): Consigli; Vrsaljko, Cannavaro, Acerbi, Peluso; Biondini, Magnanelli, Missiroli; Berardi, Zaza, Sansone. Unavailable: Pegolo, Manfredini, Taider (Coppa d’Africa)
Disciplinary Situation BEFORE the game. No suspended players.
Here is the probable formation for Palermo (3-5-2): Sorrentino; Munoz, Gonzalez, Feddal; Morganella, Rigoni, Maresca, Barreto, Lazaar; Vazquez, Dybala. Unavailable: Daprelà
Here is the probable formation for Cagliari (4-3-3): Cragno; Balzano, Ceppitelli, Rossettini, Avelar; Crisetig, Conti, Ekdal; Ibarbo, Longo, Cossu. Unavailable: Colombi, Sau
Disciplinary Situation BEFORE the game. 2 suspended players for PARMA: Galloppa (1), Santacroce (1)
1 suspended player for FIORENTINA: Borja Valero (1)
Here is the probable formation for Parma (3-5-2): Mirante; Felipe, Paletta, Lucarelli; Cassani, Lila, Lodi, Mauri, Gobbi; Palladino, Cassano. Unavailable: Biabiany, Coda, Ghezzal, Jorquera, Acquah e Belfodil
Here is the probable formation for Fiorentina (3-5-2): Tatarusanu; Savic, Rodriguez, Basanta; Joaquin, Fernandez, Pizarro, Kurtic, Alonso; Cuadrado, Gomez. Unavailable: Rossi, Bernardeschi, Lupatelli, Babacar
CESENA- NAPOLI
Stadio Dino Manuzzi
Referee: MASSA
Assistants: MUSOLINO – GIALLATINI
Fourth Official: PETRELLA
ADD1: ORSATO
ADD2: BARACANI
18:00
Disciplinary Situation BEFORE the game. 1 suspended player for CESENA: Defrel (1)
No suspended players for NAPOLI.
Here is the probable formation for Cesena (3-5-1-1): Leali; Volta, Lucchini, Capelli; Giorgi, Carbonero, Ze Eduardo, Cascione, Mazzotta; Brienza; Hugo Almeida.
Unavailable: Marilungo, Perico, Renzetti
Here is the probable formation for Napoli (4-2-3-1): Rafael; Maggio, Koulibaly, Albiol, Britos; Gargano, Lopez; Callejon, Hamsik, Mertens; Higuain.
Disciplinary Situation BEFORE the game. No suspended players.
Here is the probable formation for Juventus (4-3-1-2): Buffon; Lichtsteiner, Bonucci, Chiellini, Evra; Marchisio, Pirlo, Pogba; Vidal; Tevez, Llorente. Unavailable: Barzagli, Asamoah, Romulo
Here is the probable formation for Inter (4-2-3-1): Handanovic; Campagnaro, Ranocchia, Juan Jesus, D’Ambrosio; Medel, Kuzmanovic; Hernanes, Kovacic, Palacio; Icardi. Unavailable: Nagatomo, Mbaye
Here are the match officials and fixture for the 2014-2015 Italian Serie A Week 17 – Seventeenth Round on Monday 5 and Tuesday 6 January 2015 as designated by the Italian Referee Association (AIA).
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Photo juventus.com
The Italian Referee Association (AIA) has designated Referee Luca Banti to direct the Serie A Week 17 game JUVENTUS vs INTER on Tuesday 6 January 2015 at the Juventus Stadium in Turin, Italy at 21:00. Banti will be assisted by Nicoletti and Dobosz while fourth official is Bianchi.
Monday 5 January 2015
Serie A Week 17 / 17ª Giornata Andata
LAZIO – SAMPDORIA
Olimpico di Roma Stadium
Referee: CALVARESE
Assistants: MELI – GALLONI
Fourth Official: DI LIBERATORE
ADD1: RUSSO
ADD2: MERCHIORI
20:45
Tuesday 6 January 2015
UDINESE – AS ROMA
Friuli Stadium
Referee: GUIDA
Assistants: MARZALONI – CRISPO
Fourth Official: PAGANESSI
ADD1: TAGLIAVENTO
ADD2: MARESCA
12:30
MILAN – On 29 November 2003, Alberto Zaccheroni’s Inter were due
in Turin to meet Marcello Lippi’s Juventus. It was Week 11 and the
Nerazzurri weren’t given much of a chance in the media, as they
attempted to win at the Delle Alpi with a number of first team regulars
missing.
‘Zac’ though was able to pick Julio Ricardo Cruz,
a real thorn in Juve’s side: “I remember the days leading up to that
match,” said the former Nerazzurri number 9, as he thought back to that
evening. “It was a huge game, because we were coming into it off the
back of a tough week and Inter hadn’t won at Juventus for a number of
years. Every supporter I met in the street asked me to bring home the
three points. In the build-up to the game we could really feel the
support of the crowd. Everyone was trying to get us up for it. We were
there to make history. And we did just that.”
An unforgettable
occasion, with ‘El Jardinero’ really making his mark on the contest: “We
won 3-1 and I scored two. It was amazing for me but it was above all
important for the fans. The match against Juventus means everything to
them, it’s the ‘Derby d’Italia’. It’s impossible to forget their joy
after that victory.”
The name of Julio Ricardo Cruz is synonymous
with Juventus v Inter: “I’m pleased they still remember me all these
years later. I will always be grateful that I was able to play in so
many big games for Inter. They’re the matches any player would want to
be involved in, games you never forget.”
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