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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Sport

Ranieri puts faith in veteran pair against Chelsea

Juventus coach Claudio Ranieri will rely on the veteran striking pair of Alessandro Del Piero and David Trezeguet to overturn a 1-0 deficit against his former club Chelsea in the Champions League on Tuesday.

Ranieri strategically kept both Del Piero and Trezeguet out of Saturday's 1-0 derby win over Torino.

"We need a goal right away," Ranieri said. "We need to play like we know how and score goals."

Del Piero is Juve's all-time leading scorer with 254 goals, while Trezeguet has scored 161 times for the Bianconeri. Last season the duo topped the Serie A scoring chart with 21 goals from Del Piero and 20 from Trezeguet.

Del Piero accounted for three of Juve's four goals in two wins over Real Madrid in this season's group stage, while six of his seven Serie A goals this term have come from dead-ball situations.

"We're going to need to be perfect in every area – focused, attentive and determined like we've shown in the past," Del Piero said.

Trezeguet missed most of the season after undergoing surgery on both knees in September. He played only the final four minutes of the first leg, when Chelsea won with a 12th-minute goal from Didier Drogba.

"Hiddink has gotten some great results, but sooner or later he'll have to lose," Ranieri said.

Juventus have a problem on the right wing with Mauro Camoranesi and Marco Marchionni both out. Hasan Salihamidzic could step in or Ranieri could use forward Vincenzo Iaquinta in an attacking midfield role.

Another Juve midfielder, Mohamed Sissoko, is out with a broken right foot although the defenders Zdenek Grygera and Nicola Legrottaglie have resumed training. The full-back Jonathan Zebina made his first appearance of the season against Torino after seven months out with an Achilles injury.

Juventus have not lost in their last 13 Champions League home matches, but they have been eliminated by English clubs in their last two appearances, by Liverpool in 2005 and Arsenal the following season. The 1985 and 1996 champions sat out the last two seasons following the Italian match-fixing scandal.

"English clubs can struggle on the road," Ranieri said. "Our fans really need to give us a hand."

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