Hard times fall on Juve talisman

Juve's 2-0 win over Brescia on Sunday saw the Serie A front runners extending their lead over Milan at the top of the standings to five points. However, the media instead focused much of its attention on Alessandro Del Piero's exclusion from the team, citing a possible rift between the player and coach.

Chants from the Juve supporters at the Delle Alpi in support of Del Piero, and evoking former coach Marcello Lippi, could be heard during the game in which Juventus found little resistance from Brescia.

In his aftermath comments, Fabio Capello reiterated that the fans had every right to show their disapproval. However, he pointed out that he had been hired by the club primarily to get the results and not to please the supporters on the stands. Capello added that he decides on selections on the basis of current form and not according to names.

The omission of Del Piero was somewhat humiliating for the club talisman. He is not used to such treatment.

On the contrary, he has always been treated in an exceptional manner at Juventus and the various national team coaches.

When he joined from Padova in the early 1990s, Juve had Roberto Baggio in their ranks. In season 1994/95, Del Piero overshadowed his more illustrious team-mate in Juve's title-winning side, then coached by Lippi. The club then decided to off-load Baggio to Milan and retain Del Piero as their no.1 star player.

In the following season, Del Piero helped Juve win their second European Cup. He did not enjoy the same success with Italy though in EURO '96. In that tournament, Arrigo Sacchi preferred Gianfranco Zola and Del Piero was left out of the team.

Del Piero continued his upward progress in seasons 1996/97 and 1997/98. In November 1996, he scored the all-important goal that saw Juve winning the Intercontinental Cup. His goals were vital for the Bianconeri to be crowned champions in back-to-back seasons in 1997 and 1998.

In the 1997 Champions League final against Borussia Dortmund, Lippi dropped Del Piero in favour of Christian Vieri and Alen Boksic. Juventus were beaten by the Germans and Del Piero, introduced as a second-half substitute, could only pull one back for his side.

In the 1998 European Cup final against Real Madrid, Del Piero, like the rest of the team, was simply a non-starter as Juve lost their second consecutive final. An injury sustained in that game almost compromised Del Piero's presence in the 1998 World Cup finals in France. Here again, national coach Cesare Maldini postponed his selection to the very last minute to give Del Piero ample time to recover.

France '98 brought Del Piero and Baggio face-to-face again with the former receiving a special treatment from Maldini despite his opaque performances.

In November 1998, Del Piero, who had by then rediscovered his best form, sustained a serious injury which kept him out for the rest of the season. The period of recovery was crucial as the player's agents were engaged in talks for a contract extension.

It was only in June 1999 that Del Piero put pen to paper to pledge his future with the Turin giants. By virtue of this agreement, the annual salary of Del Piero was estimated to have reached €5.5m.

Before signing the contract, Juventus had parted company with some top-rated players mainly to make financial savings. But with Del Piero, Juventus had acted differently.

Carlo Ancelotti, who eventually replaced Lippi, kept faith in Del Piero throughout his two-and-a-half-year reign in Turin. But results proved Ancelotti wrong as Del Piero was only a shadow of the player he used to be before the injury he sustained in Udine in 1998. Even worse, Juventus failed to lift any silverware.

Dino Zoff, the next Azzurri coach, used Del Piero only sporadically and preferred Francesco Totti and Stefano Fiore instead.

Del Piero was only a second-half substitute in the EURO 2000 final France-Italy. To his misfortune, he left a negative imprint on that game as he squandered two clear-cut chances to close the game before the French struck success with a late rally.

With the return of Lippi at Juventus, Del Piero alternated between good and mediocre performances but never reached the heights of before. By this time, Francesco Totti had taken over as Italy's most talented and popular player.

Now, with Capello at the helm, Del Piero is perhaps going through the worst patch of his career with Juve.

For once, he does not have a coach who admires his talents. He is rated at par with Trezeguet and Ibrahimovic and that, inevitably, is pushing Del Piero to the sidelines and perhaps away from the club.

Serie A Statistics

0 wins for Palermo in seven league visits to Siena as the Sicilians were held to a 0-0 draw. Both sides needed a victory to keep their objectives alive. At the end, the two had to settle for their first draw since 2001 (1-1). Incidentally, this was the first-ever drawn result in seven league meetings between sides coached by Luigi De Canio and those with Francesco Guidolin at the helm. De Canio leads with four victories to two. Lecce returned to winning ways after a bleak run of five winless games thanks to a narrow home victory over Atalanta. Prior to Sunday, Lecce had not beaten Atalanta at home since an emphatic 5-1 win in 1993.

1st away win for Sampdoria against Lazio in over 12 years as they scored twice inside the opening four minutes to cruise to their fifth away victory of the term. Lazio's second consecutive home setback (following their 1-3 reverse against Palermo) coincided with Samp's first success in three league outings. Bologna pursued with their resurgence of late (three wins and two draws in their last five games) with a hard-fought, though deserved, home victory over Cagliari. For Cagliari this was their fourth straight away defeat (vs Reggina 2-3, Palermo 0-3, Udinese 0-2 and Bologna 0-1).

3 defeats and a draw are all crisis-hit Fiorentina have managed in their last four league outings. On Sunday, they scored first against Roma but instead of building on that lead, the side simply sat back soaking up the pressure exerted by the visitors. Eventually, Roma did not take too long to equalise and after the break, they had more of the play and deservedly grabbed the winning goal. Sergio Buso lost his job on Monday at Fiorentina. He was replaced by Dino Zoff. At the Giovanni Celeste stadium, Messina left it late to defeat in-form Parma for the first time since January 29, 1989 (1-0). Messina's second successive home win coincided with Parma's first defeat after a draw and two straight wins. It is worth mentioning that Parma's only win in 14 league visits to Messina dates back to April 3, 1955 (2-1) whereas the last time these two sides have shared the spoils was on May 20, 1990 (1-1).

16 goals were scored on the 20th day: nine coming from the hosts and the remaining seven from the visitors. Foreigners contributed with only four goals. There were nine first-half goals. Neither braces nor hat-tricks were recorded. Reggina's Marco Borriello was the only player who came on as a substitute and found the net. Brescia defender Maurizio Domizzi committed the only own goal of the day. It wrapped up Juve's comfortable 2-0 home success over the Lombardians. Two players - Alessandro Nesta (Milan) and Riccardo Montolivo (Atalanta) - received marching orders. Reggina mentor Walter Mazzarri became the latest coach to be ordered off his bench. Meanwhile, Francesco Flachi and Paolo Di Canio were in charge of the only two penalties of the weekend. Whereas Flachi was on target for Sampdoria to give his side a head start at the Olympic Stadium, Di Canio saw his effort blocked by Francesco Antonioli a few minutes after Flachi's goal.

56 years had to pass for Livorno to return to winning ways against Milan at their Armando Picchi stadium. On the eve of the game, few would have given Livorno any realistic chance of interrupting Milan's undefeated away league record. However, on Sunday, Livorno caused the biggest upset of the weekend to deal Milan's title chances a harsh blow. For Livorno, this was their second win in as many games under the charge of new coach and former Milan stalwart Roberto Donadoni. Juventus profited from Milan's unexpected defeat by beating minnows Brescia 2-0 to open a five-point lead at the top of the table. Brescia, without a win in their last six outings (two draws and four defeats), have never beaten Juventus in Turin and their most recent of five draws in 21 Serie A visits to the Delle Alpi dates back to April 1, 2001 (1-1). Inter preserved their unbeaten run but their umpteenth draw hindered the team from joining Udinese in third place. On Saturday, Inter were held by relegation-threatened Chievo, who have now gone five successive games without a win (two draws and three defeats).