Manninger Calls for More of The Same

Juventus goalkeeper Alex Manninger told UEFA.com he would like to see his side "start more aggressively more often" after they struck three first-half goals to pile the pressure on Fulham FC.
After seeing Juventus score three times in an eventful first half, Alex Manninger attributed his side's victory over Fulham FC to the speed with which they started the match. "We will have to start more aggressively more often," said the Bianconeri goalkeeper.

Manninger had a relatively quiet evening, with the exception of five frenetic minutes before half-time, when the former Arsenal FC custodian saved from Brede Hangeland, Bobby Zamora and Zoltán Gera. However, after David Trezeguet made it 3-1 on the stroke of half-time, following Nicola Legrottaglie's ninth-minute header, Jonathan Zebina's wonder strike and a deflected Dickson Etuhu reply, Juventus kept the visitors at bay in the second period.

"If you'd have asked me before the game I'd have taken the 3-1 straight away because we know that they are a tough side," Manninger told UEFA.com. "Fulham are a good, organised team and they've had a good Premier League season so we knew it would be hard to score. But we were really up for it and to score three goals is a great advantage for us. We said beforehand that we needed to start more aggressively. That was our strength last year, and that's always been Juve's strength in the past. We need to take the game to our opponents all season and we'll have to do it now to progress."

Juventus contained the Cottagers superbly after the break and despite conceding a goal, Alberto Zaccheroni's side were largely satisfied with their evening's work. "We gave a superb first-half performance and not conceding in the second was really important," Hasan Salihamidžić told UEFA.com. "It would have been even better had we not conceded at all but I'm happy with the result. We are always dangerous from set-pieces, Nicola [Legrottaglie] is really powerful in the air and Jonathan [Zebina] scored an unbelievable goal."

Fulham were left ruing what might have been after reducing the arrears only for Trezeguet to make it 3-1 on the stroke of half-time. "We're disappointed that we conceded two goals from set-plays," Zamora told UEFA.com. "But we created a few chances in the second half, gave them a good game and I don't think the score reflects the performance. They started strongly, got a good goal. It was a bit of a kick in the teeth for us, but we continued to work really hard and stuck it out in the second half and made a few good chances, which on another day could have gone in."

Manninger Calls for More of The Same