'Hungry' Juve revel in victory

By Graham Hunter in Turin

The hunger to finish top of UEFA Champions League Group D and the need to soothe the pain of three consecutive defeats combined to explain Juventus FC's record-breaking 7-0 victory against Olympiacos CFP.

Strong display
For a club used to winning domestic and European titles it was second nature to focus all its strength on gaining the three points needed to assure first place and a more secure position in Friday's draw. But not one player from the current squad, nor coach Marcello Lippi, was at this club the last time three consecutive matches ended in defeat as they did last week against Internazionale FC, Galatasaray SK and S.S. Lazio.

Visitors dismantled
The combination was devastating for poor Olympiacos who were ruthlessly taken apart as their offside trap failed completely. Despite other players scoring more goals, it was a gem of a performance from Enzo Maresca which stood out.

Maresca magic
The 23-year-old midfield player, who has consistently been sent out on loan, seized his opportunity and played with skill and strength, scoring once and making the majority of the goals. He said: "For me, this is an extraordinary night when I knew I had to show the coach he was right to give me my chance. But this team needed to show how good we are after three defeats in one week. Juventus is a hungry club and it is not just victory at the end of the season or in any individual cup we need but victory in every game."

Two for Trezeguet
The young Italian made the first two goals for David Trezeguet and Fabrizio Miccoli before inspiring the third for Trezeguet and scoring the fourth himself. At that point, almost any other side in Europe might have made wholesale changes at half-time and simply conserved their lead. Juventus did not. Lippi explained: "We had been a bit tense at the beginning after a difficult week. The mach went better than I could have expected and the important results are finishing first in the group and regaining our confidence.

Crucial save
"We made a similar amount of chances while losing to Galatasaray last week and if they had gone in then we might have achieved the same result as tonight," Lippi continued. "For that reason I award the most important 'goal' to my goalkeeper Antonio Chimenti, who saved early on from Predrag Djordjevic before we had scored."

'We should have defended'
Olympiacos became extremely ragged and Oleh Protasov felt that all of his tactical planning failed. "I really can't explain why we started the match as we did," said the Olympiacos coach. "None of our tactics worked. We took risks because we wanted to win but maybe we should have defended."

We didn't play
His playmaker Giovanni said: "We played against a great and very hungry team but we could never have expected 7-0 and the truth is we didn't play at all."

Players rested
Juventus rested Pavel Nedved, Gianluigi Buffon, Alessio Tacchinardi and had Edgar Davids suspended but still managed to add three second-half goals, from Marco Di Vaio, Alessandro Del Piero and Marcelo Zalayeta. Lippi added: "The only bad news tonight is that Trezeguet has a swollen ankle and we will need to examine how damaged it is."

'Very glad'
The Juventus coach believes Friday's draw might favour his side, saying: "I am very glad to have found out that Manchester United [FC], Arsenal [FC], Real Madrid [CF] and Chelsea [FC] have all also topped their group and we cannot meet them in the next round."