Gianluca Vialli discusses how the Juventus mentality is created, and remembers his team's win in the Champions League.

The 52-year-old was with the Old Lady from 1992 to 1996, where he won at one point just about every trophy that he could play for, from the Scudetto and the Champions League to the Coppa Italia, the Supercoppa and the UEFA Cup.

Gianluca Vialli discusses how the Juventus mentality is created, and remembers his team's win in the Champions League.

The 52-year-old was with the Old Lady from 1992 to 1996, where he won at one point just about every trophy that he could play for, from the Scudetto and the Champions League to the Coppa Italia, the Supercoppa and the UEFA Cup.

“Success comes from the culture you create in your organisation,” Vialli said, in the podcast 'The Big Interview with Graham Hunter'. “To wear the Juventus shirt is an honour, but it's also very heavy. The culture is that you never give up and go to the final whistle.

“You must prepare so that you can carry this claim on your shoulders. You need to be humble, play with pride but also aggression.

“We were the best at preparing ourselves. Everyone did the same thing. We trained two or three times a day. We all had individual gym programmes. It became a competition to see who could get to the gym first.

“I turned up at 6.45 a.m. one day, thinking: 'I'll be first!' Angelo Di Livio was there, saying: 'Bad luck, Luca!' It was a great environment and Marcello Lippi was my Messiah. He made us feel in control.

“When we were walking down the tunnel before a game, I remember looking at opponents and thinking: I'm not scared, you must be scared.”

The former striker also discussed the tactical dimension of Juventus under then Coach Marcello Lippi.

“Pressure is when one player does it to an individual opponent. Pressing is when a number of players do it together, and it becomes even more effective.

“A manager also tries to find the right balance in the side, so you need to convince the strikers to help the rest of the team to defend, and the defenders to be the first attackers.

“Lippi's ability to convince us that we needed to work for each other, with and without the ball, made us a very balanced team.

“The only way you can play with three strikers — which we did at Juventus — is if the three work really hard, and become the first defenders. We took pride in winning the ball from defenders.

“We wanted to run more than them. We wanted to make it physical as well as mental and we came out on top. Behind us we had Didier Deschamps, Antonio Conte and Paulo Sousa, three guys with brain, heart, legs and skills.”

Juventus now have tremendous pressure on themselves to win the Champions League, and Vialli was in a similar situation back in 1995-96.

“The only European Cup the club had won was a tragedy,” he said, in reference to the Heysel disaster in 1985. “They really wanted a European Cup trophy with happy memories. We were extremely motivated to win it for ourselves but also for the fans.

“Just before we played Real Madrid in the second leg of the quarterfinal, I spoke to the Juventus managing director. My contract was due to run out at the end of the season and I wasn't sure what I wanted to do. I thought about coming to England, but I also thought it would be nice to get a new contract at Juventus.

“The managing director said he wanted to keep me and they would offer a fifth of what I was earning! Which was a way of saying: 'Ciao!' I was angry and super motivated to prove to them that it was a big mistake to let me go. We beat Real Madrid 2-0 to go through to the semifinal. I remember crying after the second-leg match, and it was relief, not joy.

“Then, I remember the five days in Rome before the final. It was a difficult time because I knew it was my last game for the club, my second European Cup final and probably my last chance to win it. We won it on penalties. I didn't take one. We only took four. I would have been the sixth one.”

Byandrea

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