Timing looks right for prosaic Juventus

EurosceneAct Two of the week long thriller, "The Prosaic Versus the Poetic", takes place in Turin tomorrow night when newly crowned Italian champions Juventus take on the Real Madrid dream team in the second leg of their Champions League semi-final tie, writes Paddy Agnew.

Given events both last week at the Santiago Bernabeu and in the Spanish and Italian leagues over the weekend, it would seem that favourable winds are blowing the way of "prosaic" Juventus at the expense of "poetic" Real.

For those Anglo/Hispanic critics who have been so scathing in their dismissal of "negative" Italian football over the last month, there could be further serious disappointment tomorrow night.

Exactly one month ago, after the first leg of the quarter-final ties, much of the Spanish media was outspoken in its criticism of the "old-fashioned" Italian "catenaccio" with one inspired commentator likening the Italians' negative attitude to "pigs rolling in manure". "Bloodsucker Juventus Strikes Again" was another cheerful headline used by sports daily, "Il Marca", to underline its scant regard for Italian methods.

Perhaps "Il Marca" had better dust down the headline, adding "again and again". Last Saturday, on a weekend when Real were knocked off the top of the table by both Deportivo La Coruna and Real Sociedad following a 0-0 away draw with relegation battlers Recreativo Huelva, the "Old Lady" of Italian football wrapped up her 27th league title after a 2-2 draw with Perugia.

Like Real Madrid, Juventus had opted to rest key players with a view to tomorrow night's clash. Frenchman Lilian Thuram, Uruguayan Paolo Montero, Czech Pavel Nedved, Gianluca Zambrotta and Alessandro Del Piero were all left out of the Juventus starting line-up on Saturday, whilst Real took to the field without French wizard Zinedine Zidane, Brazilian ace Ronaldo, Portuguese schemer Figo and the charismatic Raul.

The good news for Juventus was that, notwithstanding key absentees, they lifted the league title two days ahead of time, even allowing themselves the luxury of conceding an injury-time equaliser in the process.

Even better news for Juventus is that Thuram, Del Piero, Nedved, Montero, Zambrotta et al are ready for tomorrow night. In contrast, at least three of the Real all stars come into the game with serious question marks over their heads.

Talisman Raul has not played since undergoing an operation for appendicitis three weeks ago. Ronaldo is a doubtful starter because of a two centimetre long pull to his left calf muscle picked up against Juventus last week, whilst Zidane had to hurriedly fly to Paris on Saturday to visit specialist Philippe Boixel because of a back problem. As if all that were not bad enough, French midfielder Claude Makelele is out of the tie having picked up a left thigh strain in Saturday's draw with Recreativo.

Given Real's 2-1 win last week, Juventus would make it to their fourth Champions League final in the last eight seasons with just a 1-0 home win. Even if Juventus coach Marcello Lippi yesterday said that to play for the 1-0 would be "dangerous" because Real "can always score against you", there is no denying the huge sense of optimistic expectation up in Turin.

Whereas the Stadio Delle Alpi was only two-thirds full for Saturday's league title triumph, tomorrow night's game was a sell-out almost within hours. The fans, like the club itself, clearly have no doubts about their priorities.

As he prepares for his biggest game of the season, Lippi was yesterday asked to identify the "ideal football" he wants his sides to play. Speaking on state radio, he gave an admirably Lippi-like answer: "You can see for yourselves if you watch my sides. I want equilibrium. I want a side in which a majority of my players want to get forward and score when we have possession but in which a majority also want to chase and win back the ball when the opposition have possession."

Juve v Real or competitive equilibrium versus languid inspiration. Given what we saw at the Bernabeu one week ago, prosaic Juventus may be about to strike at the expense of poetic Real. This may not be a night out for footballing romantics.