18 March 2017
‘Normal’ to be facing Barcelona
“No doubt about it, our Champions League quarter-final against Barcelona will be a fascinating tie, but we’ve four matches to play beforehand so it doesn’t make sense to talk about it right now.
“One thing I would say is that we shouldn’t be getting carried away about playing Barcelona. For Juventus this should be completely normal. In the last three years we’ve reached the Champions League final, a last 16 tie against Bayern Munich and this time around a quarter-final against Barcelona. To me at least there’s nothing particularly special or strange about that.”
Samp match key to Scudetto bid
“Sampdoria have won five and drawn two of their last seven matches. They’ve beaten Roma at home, Milan away and last weekend they saw off Genoa in the derby.
“Therefore, we need to approach tomorrow’s game with the utmost professionalism just as we have done in our recent fixtures because we can give our Scudetto credentials a huge boost with victory over Sampdoria.
“Our primary objective remains winning the league. History shows that lifting six Serie A titles in a row is virtually impossible, but we have the chance to do so and we must take it.”
Team news
“Chiellini is not available for Sampdoria. Barzagli will be playing tomorrow and one of Bonucci and Rugani will partner him.
“I’m not at all worried about the fact that Higuain hasn’t scored for a few games. This happens to all strikers. He’s not tired. On the contrary, he’s in very good shape.
“Marchisio benefitted from playing on Tuesday night against Porto. He’s working his way back to full fitness and is available for selection this weekend.”
