Marco Tardelli praises his old side Juventus who ‘never give up’ but says ‘maybe they need holy water’ to stop Barcelona.
The former midfielder spent 10 seasons in Turin with the Bianconeri, and spoke to British newspapers the Guardian and the Daily Mail about today’s side.
“I like their determination,” Tardelli explained.
“They don't give up. You could see the way they fought until the end to win the Coppa Italia.
Marco Tardelli praises his old side Juventus who ‘never give up’ but says ‘maybe they need holy water’ to stop Barcelona.
The former midfielder spent 10 seasons in Turin with the Bianconeri, and spoke to British newspapers the Guardian and the Daily Mail about today’s side.
“I like their determination,” Tardelli explained.
“They don't give up. You could see the way they fought until the end to win the Coppa Italia.
“The club has gone back to the days of being a Juventus club with another Agnelli as president, Andrea, the son of Umberto.
“It is going back to the glory days. There's still a way before they have the presence on an international level like Barcelona, Real Madrid or Bayern Munich.
“They're not the ultimate dream team yet. But it's starting to get back to that.
“How would I stop Messi? I would do what I did against Maradona [i.e kick him]. But now you can't play like that. So I don't know.
“Juventus has a good defence. Barcelona has a great attack.
“It's one match. It is a possibility. Jose Mourinho found a way to stop Barcelona [with Inter in 2010] but that was a different Barcelona. Now it is a different team.
“Now it is like champagne. I'm not sure there is a way to stop Barcelona at the moment. Maybe they need holy water.”
Tardelli was a part of the Juve side which won the club’s first European Cup in 1985, though it was tainted by the events at Heysel Stadium in which 39 fans were killed.
“You feel it all the time. You carry it with you, it never leaves you. You don’t just remember it every 10 years or 20 years.
“It is with you and, sometimes, you think about it. It is part of you. The final in Brussels was a defeat for everybody on all levels.
“I don’t count it as a winners’ medal in any way.
“We managed to get one father and his son of about 12 years old into the tunnel, near to the dressing rooms.
“The boy was crying and he was really scared. The police had briefly opened the gates in Sector Z of the stadium before closing them and the father and son had managed to come across the pitch and reach the tunnel.
“The father was clearly in shock but he was determined to save his son. He was shouting for help.
“I was standing there with a couple of other players and there was a policeman or somebody at the entrance. I urged him to let them in.
“It was the natural thing to do. I was a father, too. My daughter would have been eight at the time.
“The stadium should not have hosted such an event, as it was not up to par, and it was a mistake on behalf of the Belgian police to put the hooligans so close to the Italians in Sector Z.
“It was also a mistake from Uefa not to call the match off. I remember going out from the dressing room to speak to the supporters on the curva.
“The police didn’t give them a chance to run away across the pitch. They should have opened the gates. They kept the Italians in the wolf’s den.
“We scored our winning goal from a penalty and it was outside the area.
“The Liverpool players could have kicked up a fuss but they didn’t. They were just in shock.”