Our destiny is in our hands - Buffon

Posted Thursday, November 08, 2012 by Supersport.com

Two-time Champions League winners Juventus set up a potential make-or-break clash at home to defending champions Chelsea in two weeks' time after a 4-0 rout of Nordsjaelland on Wednesday.

However, their legendary goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon is confident they can get the required results to make the last 16, which sees them at present lying in third spot a point adrift of both Chelsea and Shakhtar Donetsk.

Chelsea had stolen all three points with a stoppage time goal by Victor Moses for a 3-2 win over Shakhtar at Stamford Bridge on Wednesday.

"A draw (in the Chelsea/Shakhtar game) would have been nice, of course, but at the end of the day our destiny is still in our hands," said Buffon.

"The fact it all depends on us is a good sign. We're at home to Chelsea and then away to Donetsk.

"We're confident and you can't always rely on other results."

Antonio Conte's side went into the fourth match of the group phase desperate for a win having had to settle for three consecutive draws including a 1-1 tie in Denmark two weeks ago.

However the Old Lady of Turin's nerves were settled early on when Claudio Marchisio pounced to score the opener on seven minutes and Arturo Vidal and Sebastian Giovinco made it 3-0 before the interval.

Nordsjaelland's share of the points two weeks go was likened to a victory by the Danish champions, but away from home they were sorely exposed and given few opportunities at launching meaningful offensives.

Juventus were ruthless in putting the Danes to the sword, extra motivation stemming from suffering their first defeat in 50 games on Sunday when Serie A rivals Inter Milan left Turin with a precious 3-1 win.

Marchisio, who along with midfield maestro Andrea Pirlo stood out for the hosts in a quasi-striker's role, admitted defeat to Inter had played a role.

"It was important for us to win and we did really well tonght," said Marchisio.

"After our defeat to Inter there was a lot of talk, but someone forgot to mention we hadn't been beaten for over a year.

"We could have suffered a psychological blow, but we didn't let that happen."

With Inter only one point behind at the top of Serie A, Juventus now have to get through the next two weeks and hope they can then come to the Champions League table with the same kind of hunger shown against the Danes.

Juve were unlucky not to score even more goals, with Alessandro Matri missing several chances before eventually providing the assist for second half substitute Fabio Quagliarella to score on 75 minutes.

It ended a run of nine consecutive draws in Europe for Juventus including a 2-2 draw at Stamford Bridge with Chelsea earlier in the group stage.

Bringing that frustrating run to an end appeared to have buoyed Buffon, who had been critical of his teammates after the Inter defeat.

"We put on a very convincing performance which shows that if Juventus take the right attitude on to the pitch then few teams can compete with us," he said.