Del Neri rues Melo dismissal

Juventus manager Luigi Del Neri bemoaned the sending off of star Felipe Melo as his side slumped to a 4-1 home defeat to Parma on Thursday.

As Serie A action for 2011 began, Juve started the year in the worst possible fashion as striker Fabio Quagliarella limped off injured before Melo’s dismissal, all in the opening 20 minutes.

“Playing with 10 men is complicated enough, then losing Quagliarella certainly didn’t help,” Del Neri told Sky Italia.

“It’s the second time that we’ve played with 10 men for almost the entire game. We’ll roll up our sleeves and find a solution for Sunday’s game against Napoli with the idea of recovering as much energy as possible as soon as possible.”

“If we want to fight for an important objective, we have to judge the situations well.”

Del Neri admitted that the return of Alessandro Del Piero and Amauri, a third-minute inclusion for Quagliarella, may have come ahead of schedule and cost Juve a chance of getting back in the match.

“It wasn’t easy to manage the game with Amauri and Ale Del Piero coming back from injuries of their own,” he said.

“We could have created a few chances with better balance, but I can say little because Melo’s sending off changed the game.”