Juve coach Zaccheroni believes in fourth spot

Juventus coach Alberto Zaccheroni believes his team can still secure Champions League football next season despite already suffering 11 league defeats and with supporters becoming increasingly angry.

Juve were totally outplayed by Napoli in a 3-1 loss on Thursday and with only eight matches remaining they have three points to make up on fourth-placed Palermo.

Their schedule also includes testing trips to Inter and AC Milan, making their task that much harder.

“It will be tough but we can still finish fourth. I’m not interested in what games we’ve got coming up, I look only at my team,” he said ahead of Sunday’s visit of Atalanta.

“Soon we’ll have a entire week to prepare for matches and we have to make the most of that fact.”

Juve have been playing twice a week for large parts of the season but having been dumped out of the Champions League in December, lost in the Italian Cup in January and been humiliated by Fulham in the Europa League, they have only one objective left.

But their fans have turned against them and on Friday night a banner was hung outside the Juve headquarters demanding the resignation of the board of directors and lamenting the club’s ‘worst’ season in 103 years.

“What do I think about the protest, we have to earn the fans’ support,” said Zaccheroni, who is only under contract until the end of the season having taken over from Ciro Ferrara at the end of January.

The veteran coach does have one piece of good news this weekend – Italy goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon looks certain to make his comeback from injury.