Gabriele Cioffi spoke exclusively to Udinese TV ahead of the trip to Juventus on Saturday. Here’s what he had to say:
The team will be back in action in a big game against Juventus. It’ll be a tough match, but what do you want to see on the pitch from your Udinese side?
“The key concept is simply sacrifice and desire. That’s what the lads showed in the last game. We’ve lived through and we’re living through a surreal situation. We don’t want to make space for excuses, so we give our all.”
Juventus come into the game off the back of losing in the Super Cup, but they will have some key players back such as [Wojciech] Szczesny, [Matthijs] De Ligt and [Juan] Cuadrado. Do you expect them to be tired despite the quality and depth of their squad?
“They’ve won nine Scudetti out of ten and they were off the back of 13 games unbeaten. I don’t think the word “fatigue” exists at a club of the calibre of Juventus. They’re warriors and mentally, they could play a game every day. We expect Juventus to be angry after losing in the Super Cup. We expect them to start strong and they’ll want to put the game straight to bed.”
The last few weeks have been very hard at Udinese. What have you made of how the players have coped? Have you got any more players back or do you hope to have some return?
“The last few weeks have been so tough. We had the first ‘team training session’ two days ago. Now they’re all available, so we need to see how fit they are.”
Last one on the transfer market. [Filip] Benkovic has come in. What have you made of him and could he be involved tomorrow?
“He’s joined the club after a long period out, so he won’t be in the squad tomorrow. He’s a promising player in European football. He’s a player who’s been chosen by Udinese because of the huge potential that he has and which we can all see. He’s a player who I know well. I saw him play in England. He has huge desire to rediscover his form and at this club, he’s in an environment where people will do everything to help him achieve his goal.”