A cool confrontation awaits us in Italy’s main derby not only on the pitch but also off the pitch. Antonio Conte, experienced as a coach, against the inexperienced Andrea Pirlo.
As you know, this is Pirlo’s first season as a coach. He started from absolutely zero. Andrea has a lot of critics. But recently Juve have stabilized. From the last 11 matches (in all tournaments), “Bianconeri” have won 9, drawn 1 and lost 1.
Pirlo decided to coach after meeting Conte. As Andrea has repeatedly pointed out, Conte was the best coach in his career, and his inspiration also came out. Pirlo Conte trained at Juventus for three seasons, and it is with their name that the return of the Turinese to Italian football is associated.
By the way, although Conte and Pirlo have always had a special relationship and are still friends, they also had a minor conflict for a while. In September 2013, in a match against Verona, Conte replaced Pirlo, which angered Andrea and he went straight to the locker room. Conte could not contain his emotions after the game and imposed fines on the team due to Pirlo’s indiscipline. “From now on, you will only enter the dressing room directly if you either have a broken leg or will be taken off the field on a stretcher!” Conte said at the time. Nevertheless, Pirlo immediately realized the mistake, nothing similar had happened in the future. So, he too was “conducting” Juve in the old days.
Juve’s Past with Conte
In addition to having a confrontation with the former apprentice, Juventus have a great past with Conte. Antonio is Juventus in spirit and in flesh. But now the fans of the great traitor “Bianconeri” are no longer on the back of the earth.
Conte played for Juventus from 1991-2004. He was their head coach in 2011-2014. In both cases, Conte was the creator of unforgettable victories. It was Conte who, on May 5, 2002, when Juve took Inter in the final round of the Scudetto, shouted in the dressing room that it was great revenge for the disappointment he experienced in Perugia two years ago. ‘What I do, time goes by, people change, and so do circumstances.’ By the way, Conte had to play against Juventus three times and lost all three (twice last season, once in 2009 when he was coaching Atalanta).
On the other hand, Andrea Pirlo also has a black-and-blue past. He was a great Inter player as a child. At the beginning of his career he got a chance to play for his favorite team. But then everything started so that Pirlo left his main mark in football with the shirt of Inter’s main rivals, Milan and Juventus.
Juve have serious staffing problems. Paulo Dybala will not be able to play due to injury, Matthijs de Ligt – Coronavirus. Juan Cuadrado and Alex Sandro have Covid-19. But they are waiting for their test answers, and if it is negative, Pirlo will be able to put them on the bench anyway. Federico Chiesa and Weston McCann have had minor injuries. But they have already trained with the team and, according to recent reports, are ready. Only the absence of Danilo D’Ambrosio at Inter can be singled out.
Finally, Inter have 37 points in 17 rounds, are in 2nd place and is 3 points behind leader Milan, while Juventus are in 4th place with 33 points. However, the Turin Grand have played less than their rivals.