Juventus coach Antonio Conte gathered his players for a team talk at the club's training ground on Tuesday, during which he urged them to make Scudetto rivals AC Milan "spit blood" right until the final game of the season.
The speech was centred on the Bianconeri boss' fear that his troops will rest on their laurels having already surpassed expectations for the current campaign by sustaining a serious title challenge after successive seventh-placed finishes in Serie A.
“People are flooding us with praise right now, but that sends shivers through me," Conte is quoted as saying by La Gazzetta dello Sport.
"Why? Because I have fear, I have fear that someone here will start to relax.
“There is applause and a consensus, but what is the reality? The reality is the pitch, the reality is sweat, the reality is sacrifice.
“That is what has led us to this point of the championship and we still haven’t done anything yet.
“Let’s look at who we have in front of us now because we are mature enough to fight until the very end.
“As I said before, they [Milan] will have to spit blood until the last game.”
Milan currently lead the table by three points over Juve, with the Rossoneri set to host Fiorentina on Saturday afternoon before the Bianconeri tackle Palermo in Sicily later in the day.
Juventus, the Serie A champions, say the team's shirts next season will feature the words "30 on the pitch" in reference to the two titles that were stripped from the club.
After winning their 28th official Serie A title last month, Juventus had wanted to add a third gold star to the two already on the team's shirts to mark the 30 they claim to have won. The 30 includes the two titles they lost because of the 2006 matchfixing scandal, but the club opted to avoid a battle with the Italian football federation.
Instead the club have decided to use the slogan below the badge on the team shirts. On Friday, Juventus director Francesco Calvo said: "For everyone, players and fans, Juve has won 30 league titles on the pitch."
Bobby Taylor's Pub Team said:From the Guardian. Shameless aren't they? Not sure how I'd feel if this were my club.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2012/jun/08/juventus-shirts-title-stripped
Juventus, the Serie A champions, say the team's shirts next season will feature the words "30 on the pitch" in reference to the two titles that were stripped from the club.
After winning their 28th official Serie A title last month, Juventus had wanted to add a third gold star to the two already on the team's shirts to mark the 30 they claim to have won. The 30 includes the two titles they lost because of the 2006 matchfixing scandal, but the club opted to avoid a battle with the Italian football federation.
Instead the club have decided to use the slogan below the badge on the team shirts. On Friday, Juventus director Francesco Calvo said: "For everyone, players and fans, Juve has won 30 league titles on the pitch."
OnlyJu said:We have win 30 scudetti.
OnlyJu said:We have win 30 scudetti.