Del Piero hoping for final fortune
Alessandro del Piero is hoping to put an unhappy major finals record behind him at Old Trafford tonight.
Since securing the European Cup with a penalty shoot-out win over Ajax in 1996, the Juventus skipper has played in two more Champions League finals and Italy’s Euro 2000 decider with France and lost the lot.
It is a run the brilliant 28-year-old is desperate to end at the expense of AC Milan as the Turin giants look to secure their seventh major European trophy.
Much will be expected of del Piero tonight because of the absence of fellow playmaker Pavel Nedved through suspension.
The Czech Republic international was shown his third yellow card of the competition in the superb semi-final second-leg win over Real Madrid in the Stadio delle Alpi when Juve overturned a 2-1 deficit from the opening game and strolled into a 3-0 lead before conceding late consolation to Zinedine Zidane.
“I have lost a few finals but I never felt the team has played that badly. Maybe this time I would settle for us to play not quite as well and win the game,” he said.
