Del Neri plays down Juve title chances

Juventus coach Gigi del Neri is still deflecting talk of a Serie A title challenge despite his side claiming a 2-0 win away to Genoa on Sunday.

An Eduardo own-goal, deflected in from Claudio Marchisio’s shot, and a Milos Krasic drive – both in the space of five first-half minutes – helped Juve secure three points at the Comunale Luigi Ferraris.

The Turin giants have lost just twice this season and are now unbeaten in their last nine league games, with del Neri more than satisfied at their latest victory.

“The lads were very focused and played well, showing their maturity,” del Neri said.

“Winning in Genoa makes us proud, as it’s not easy.”

Despite being only six points behind league leaders AC Milan, former Roma and Sampdoria manager del Neri maintains it is still too early in the season to be targeting the championship.

“We are in the running and can have our say this season, but we’ve got to take it one weekend at a time,” he said.

“We mustn’t kid ourselves, nor look down upon what we have achieved so far. We can target our final goal (winning the title) … but not at this moment.”

Del Neri praised the contribution of goal-scorer Milos Krasic, but he also issued a reminder that the Serbia international needs to attend to his duties at both ends of the pitch.

“Krasic was only able to play 60 minutes, but we took that chance because we have faith in his characteristics,” del Neri said.

“Milos has great talent and he still needs to get used to Italian football, which means helping out the defence.”

Davide Ballardini, who took over as Genoa coach earlier this month, was pleased with the second-half display from his side and believes improvement may arrive with the return of key players from injury.

“In the first half we were pegged back into our own side half. They never let us get out of that situation and we were too slow,” Ballardini said.

“After the break the team had more confidence and we had our midfielders in the right place, so we were able to play.”

“Unfortunately today our choices were very limited. We need to get all our players back from the treatment room. With them we have elements of real quality and can trouble the top clubs.”