On the morning of Saturday, February 6th last, Didier Deschamps turned up for Juventus team training in angry mood. He stormed into the dressing-room at the old Stadio Communale in Turin and made for team coach Marcello Lippi.
"How come I have to find out that I've been dropped by reading the papers? If I'm dropped, I want to hear it first from you, not from the papers."
Lippi, the man whose intelligent stewardship put Juventus back on top of world soccer with three Italian titles and one Champions Cup win in the last four seasons, replied to the effect that he was the coach, adding that he would take certain decisions as, when and how he saw fit.
There ensued a bitter exchange, one that became so angry that other players were forced to intervene to avoid a bout of fisticuffs.
We know that the above squabble took place because Deschamps reported the episode one month later, saying only: "I think a lot of time will have to pass before Lippi and I talk to one another again."
Lippi stuck to his team selection and dropped Deschamps for the following day's Serie A game at home to Parma. When a dispirited Juventus lost that game 4-2, notwithstanding that they had opened the scoring, Marcello Lippi decided the time had come for drastic measures. Wishing to assert his authority once and for all, he announced his resignation after the match: "If I am the problem . . . then I'll say goodbye to you and leave."
Lippi had hoped that the club would reject his resignation, thus strengthening his hand in any continuing feuds with senior players such as Deschamps, Zinedine Zidane, captain Antonio Conte and others. The Juventus inner circle (Roberto Bettega, Umberto Agnelli, etc.), however, were well informed of the tensions between coach and players and maintained a deafening silence, thus ridding themselves of a coach whose profile had turned from all-winning to all-squabbling in the space of an unsuccessful autumn.
That weekend represented a turning point in the Juventus season. The defeat by Parma climaxed a miserable, three-month, 13-match Serie A run in which the reigning champions had won only two games, drawn five and lost six. Since then, under new coach Carlo Ancelotti (and with Deschamps back in the side), Juventus have not lost in six outings.
More importantly, since then Juventus have bullishly stomped their way into a Champions League semi-final clash with Manchester United.
It might be tempting for Anglo-Saxon observers to conclude that this Juventus are just right for the picking. Out of the title contest in sixth position, 14 points behind leaders Lazio and deprived of one of their key figures in long-term injury victim Alessandro Del Piero, Juventus might look like a side that has come to the end of a winning road.
Furthermore, Juventus have often appeared in difficulty in this season's Champions League, making the quarter-final cut only at the last minute and by the narrowest of margins, and then again qualifying for their semi-final tie with Manchester United thanks to a late equaliser against Olympiakos last Wednesday night.
Add to those considerations the news that Zidane will definitely miss the first leg of the tie at Old Trafford and you could conclude that United are as good as past the post.
The above analysis, however, leaves out at least two important considerations. For a start, it ignores the Juventus competitive spirit and sheer capacity for battle, the team's depth of experience and track record as a finalist in the last three editions of the Champions League. The second consideration is the obvious one that "Juventus is not Inter". While this Juventus side hardly seems up to the standards of its immediate predecessors, it is still a whole world removed from the demoralised, disorganised, anarchic Inter side which United dismissed in mid-week.
Put simply, if Manchester United are to beat Juventus, then they will need to improve on their overall showing against Inter where, even with a deal of luck going their way, they surprisingly struggled.
Ancelotti said last Friday that Manchester United were the side Juventus fans wanted to get in the draw. Those of us who watch English soccer from afar also wanted Juventus to get Manchester United, if only because they will provide a reliable, if not earth-shattering yardstick by which to assess United. Unlike Inter Milan, Juventus will prove no soft touch.
