LIEF AFTER 1-0 VICTORY
IRURETA SATISFIED ABOUT EUROPEAN WIN


"We have learned from last year". These were the words spoken by Deportivo

coach Javier Irureta as he referred to the previous match in Riazor between

the two teams when Deportivo threw away an early 2-0 lead. This expressed

the satisfaction of the Basque coach although he was of the opinion that

the final score could, and should, have been higher.


Irureta commented that "last year we were winning 2-0 against them and we

assumed that we had won. In the end they levelled that match, so it seems

we have learned from it. Nevertheless, we should have won by a higher

margin as in my opinion we deserved to score more goals. I remember the

first half opportunities of Victor, Tristan, Valeron... We had sufficient

chances to score although we didn't succeed in doing it. But we started

the match well and had fifteen or twenty minutes of excellent play. And

our defence was very secure tonight as again we didn't leak goals. That's

a positive sign, although we really should use our own chances more".


The coach of Deportivo already was with his thoughts at the return match

in Turin in 12 days. "We can travel with good hope. But at the same time

we should be careful. In any case I am convinced that it will be very

difficult to achieve a pass to the next round. Juventus are a big club

and all possibilities are still open. But I don't lose the real position

as they'll have to score two goals at least while preventing us from

scoring. Therefore the result of tonight isn't bad at all". Finally, Irureta

had some words about the referee of last night. "He permitted a lot and

only showed our opponent a yellow card after 93 minutes. But he always was

well positioned and didn't influence the final result".


His colleague, Marcello Lippi, commented that "to be defeated is never a

good thing. But this result gives us hope for the return match because I

think the match in Delle Alpi will be very different compared to this one".

But when reviewing the match Lipp admitted that his team "didn't start the

match well. After a while we entered the match though and we created two

opportunities to score. Besides, we were already playing much better when

Deportivo scored their goal. In the second half we improved even more as

Miccolo failed in an one-on-one situation against Molina". Finally, Lippi

mentioned the bad luck Juventus struck concerning injuries as both David

Trezeguet and Paolo Montero went off injured. "In fact, Trezeguet could

be out between two and three weeks".