Lippi praises 'special' Juve

Victorious Juventus FC coach Marcello Lippi hailed his side after a remarkable performance at Camp Nou saw the Italian champions stun FC Barcelona 2-1 to advance to the UEFA Champions League semi-finals 3-2 on aggregate after extra time, despite the second-half dismissal of Edgar Davids.

'Special team'
"The truth is that we are a special team with special qualities and that won us the game tonight," Lippi said. "We excel at understanding a match and its particular problems and we excel at working out what to do. It may not be spectacular but it is very effective - and spectacular football is not what determines victory."

Zalayeta winner
Lippi brought on Marcelo Zalayeta and Alessandro Birindelli at half-time and the substitutions proved inspired, the pair proving to be the match-winners, Birindelli crossing for Zalayeta to score with six minutes to play. That goal meant Barcelona became the first team in Champions League history to be knocked out in the quarter-finals without having lost a match in regulation time, a shattering realisation for Barcelona coach Radomir Antic.

'Dream is over'
"Barcelona's Champions League dream is over, ruined in an unjust, terrible manner," Antic said. "I think we gave a great account of ourselves and I would argue that we tried everything to win the game. But in football it's not always the better team that wins and from my viewpoint we were far, far superior to Juventus. We had our chances but the great maxim of football is that when you don't take your chances you are always punished and that is what happened."

Luis Enrique miss
Antic in particular would rue the chance missed by Luis Enrique two minutes after the restart. After collecting Patrick Kluivert's pass on the left, the Barcelona captain turned Paolo Montero inside out before shooting wide with only Gianluigi Buffon to beat. Then, moments before Zalayeta's winner, Buffon saved bravely from an acrobatic effort from Patrick Kluivert.

Streetwise
On a night of outstanding individual performances, heroic physical sacrifices and two utterly contrasting styles of football, it was the streetwise qualities of Juventus that won the day. A man short after Davids' second yellow card for a foul on Gaizka Mendieta with eleven minutes to play, Juventus relied on the impressive Paolo Montero and Lilian Thuram and two moments of sublime goalkeeping from Buffon to hold on, convincing Lippi that his side were always in with a chance.

'On the rise'
"We never expected it to go to penalties because even with ten men we had chances," he said. "I knew that even with ten men we would give nothing to Barcelona. We haven't been in the Champions League semi-finals for quite a long time, but we won the Scudetto last season and now you can see after this performance that Juventus is on the rise again. After difficult years Italian football is fighting back too."

Nedved opener
In an open, free-flowing match, Juventus scored against the run of play eight minutes after the break through Pavel Nedved, but Barcelona hit back with a well-crafted move culminating in Xavi Hernández firing in from the edge of the box 13 minutes later.

'Disaster'
From then on it was all Barcelona - until Zalayeta struck to leave Luis Enrique thinking of what might have been. "We missed many chances and mine was the worst," he said. "It hurts more losing in this way - one mistake and we are out." Xavi, the Barcelona goalscorer, concurred: "This was a disaster. In one moment everything went wrong and we paid a terrible price."