Helguera ready to answer back

By Graham Hunter in Madrid

After years of success as a coach in Italian football, Marcello Lippi was perfectly entitled to venture an opinion on Real Madrid CF's puzzling form ahead of his Juventus FC side's meeting with the holders at the Santiago Bernabéu in the first leg of their UEFA Champions League semi-final.

Negative sign
Referring to Madrid's 5-1 home defeat by RCD Mallorca at the weekend, the Juventus coach said: "It is a sign that everything is not well because a team in good shape doesn't lose 5-1 at home. It's difficult to see that happening in Italy - the league leaders losing in that manner to a mid-table team."

Incendiary effect
The Turin side are leading the way in Serie A, with an eight-point cushion, so the inference is clear: "This wouldn't happen to my Juve". Lippi's words hardly carried the same incendiary effect as Sir Alex Ferguson's before Manchester United FC played Madrid in the last round, but Vicente del Bosque's players have seized upon them gratefully.

Vision and technique
Even the world's top players, the stars who entertain us with their brilliance of vision and technique, habitually need the basic stimulus of feeling that someone has challenged them. Especially toward the end of a long hard season it helps to ease tired limbs and occasionally unfocused minds.

'Done the business'
And Iván Helguera, not a sympathiser with the Italian football ethos after an unsatisfying spell with AS Roma earlier in his career, was quick to disagree with Lippi's analysis. "We will do our talking on the pitch," said the central defender. "We are leading the league, we are defending our Champions League title and when these two games against Juventus are finished we will see who has done the business.

'Earned respect'
"Juventus need to worry about themselves, not us. We are at home and we will play our own way without worrying about what was only an accident last Saturday. The result I would like against Juventus is 6-0, preferably, but 2-0 or 3-0 would help give us some breathing space. Juventus have earned respect for their achievements, as has Italian football, but I must admit I'd rather there were three Spanish teams playing badly in the Champions League semi-final rather than three Italian teams playing well."

Ronaldo determined
Equally Ronaldo, scorer of that spectacular hat-trick at Old Trafford to put the defending champions in this semi-final, believes he has some wrongs to right against Juventus. "During my time in Italy with Inter[nazionale FC] I lost two championships at the very last moment to Juventus," said the Brazilian. "I have to admit that I'm determined not to let Juve do this to me again because those two losses against them felt like huge punches in the stomach."

Fourth final
Yet even though Lippi's words have added a certain edge to the pre-match atmosphere they give a clear indication that the coach who claimed the 1996 Champions League, defeating Madrid in the quarter-final en route, feels that his team are about to reach their fourth final in eight years.

'Improved greatly'
"The last time we played against Real Madrid was in the Champions League final of 1998. Then we were the big favourites but things have changed, Madrid have improved greatly and, deservedly, they are heavy favourites against us. But as we saw in that final which we lost [1-0], it is not always the favoured team which comes up with the victory it is supposed to." Del Bosque will know that too.