Gilberto on Juventus
From Icons.com - Monday 3rd April 2006
This entire article is the voice of Gilberto himself:
Our result at Highbury was important, but there is still a tough match to be played in Turin and we would be very naïve to think that Juve are the kind of team that gives up without a proper fight. I know they will be missing some key players, including Patrick Vieira, and that some of their stars did not perform well in London, but their squad is still loaded with quality and Fabio Capello is one of the best managers in the world. Therefore, we at Arsenal are well aware that this tie isn't over yet.
We have only done the first part of our job and as Arsenal have got a relatively young team this season the main thing for us now is to keep our anxiety under control.
Football is a box full of surprises as we say in Brazil to explain situations like the one we are experiencing now. A few weeks ago I was really upset with what seemed to be Arsenal's worst season since I arrived at Highbury and it was very hard not to feel down. Now just a few weeks later, we are really close to the Champions League semi-finals.
People say Juve might get physical and try to bully us in Turin but I think Arsenal have already proved that we don't bottle away from challenges against angry faces. We can play hard if it's necessary. And we will, while trying to impose the quality of our game.
I think our season has been helped by the fact that we didn't have the trickiest group ever in the first stage of the Champions League. Qualifying from that group with a good campaign behind us was a great relief, and then having the chance to beat Real Madrid in the knockout stages motivated us even more. We've definitely got our confidence back now.
If they play, Pavel Nedved is one of Europe's most dangerous midfielders, and Alessandro Del Piero has enough skill to decide a match in one moment. All of us at Arsenal have got to keep our eyes open. We can dream of playing in the semi-final after we've earned the right to be there. We all have our feet on the ground.
