Juve hoping Real win can revive league fortunes

Juventus can reignite their season thanks to Tuesday's 2-1 win over Real Madrid in the Champions League, captain Alessandro Del Piero has said.

The Serie A side had gone five matches without a victory going into the game and languish in 12th place in the league ahead of Saturday's Turin derby with Torino.

Club bosses had been forced to give coach Claudio Ranieri a vote a confidence but the battling Group H victory over a lacklustre Real has offered hope that their early season form was just a blip.

"We hope this is the first step towards further wins," Del Piero told reporters.

"I am really happy because they allowed us to play a certain type of game in a difficult moment for the team. We were great."

The 33-year-old, the only Juve starter who played against Real the last time they met in the Champions League in 2005, opened the scoring with a superb strike after five minutes before Amauri extended the home side's lead just after half-time.

Ruud van Nistelrooy headed in for the visitors midway through the second period but generally the Spanish champions were well below par.

Coach Bernd Schuster was not overly alarmed and targeted their next European match at home to Juve on Nov. 5.

"The most important thing is that Real finish top of the group," he said.

Juve top the group on seven points from three games with Real one point behind. BATE Borisov have two and Zenit St Petersburg one after they drew 1-1 in Russia.