Juventus legend Marcello Lippi insists Massimiliano Allegri was right to say fans can’t expect the Champions League final every year.
The Coach drew criticism when he said that Bianconeri fans shouldn’t be “depressed” by the 2-2 draw with Tottenham Hotspur, as his side can’t be expected to dominate in Europe as they do in Italy.
“I completely agree with him,” Lippi, the last Coach to win the trophy with Juve, told Tuttosport.
Juventus legend Marcello Lippi insists Massimiliano Allegri was right to say fans can’t expect the Champions League final every year.
The Coach drew criticism when he said that Bianconeri fans shouldn’t be “depressed” by the 2-2 draw with Tottenham Hotspur, as his side can’t be expected to dominate in Europe as they do in Italy.
“I completely agree with him,” Lippi, the last Coach to win the trophy with Juve, told Tuttosport.
“Max is right, and he did well to completely reject all of the negativity coming from outside. Victory is by no means assured in the Champions League.
“Tottenham are an excellent team and the 2-2 came on the comeback, if it had been the other way round and they’d pulled back two goals against the English we’d be having a very different conversation about the return leg.
“It’s not over yet, there’s another match, they just can’t get it wrong at Wembley. And it’s not like they just have to win.
“They could also get a 2-2 and then score in extra-time. There are some parallels with our Quarter-Final in 2003.
“We drew 1-1 with Barcelona in Turin, then we went to the Camp Nou to play for qualification.
“We went ahead through [Pavel] Nedved, Xavi pulled them level and we went down to 10 men when [Edgar] Davids was sent off.
“It was an infinite match, then in added time [Alessandro] Birindelli crosses and [Marcelo] Zalayeta scores.
“In that Champions League we destroyed the Spanish. Before Barcelona we had beaten Deportivo la Coruna and in the semi-finals we eliminated Real Madrid.”
Gianluigi Buffon, who won the World Cup with Lippi as well as two Scudetti at Juve came in for criticism for letting in Christian Eriksen’s free-kick on Tuesday night.
“He took half a step because he expected the free-kick to go over the wall. If he hadn’t done that and Eriksen had shot that way then everyone would criticise him for that.”