For Claudio Marchisio, 2016 has been a year to forget. The Juventus midfielder was laid low most of the year by injuries, with a ruptured anterior cruciate ligament forcing him to miss the Euro 2016 and the start of the Serie A season.
The Italian, who got himself injured while playing for Juventus in April, only made a comeback in the last week of October. While Juventus have continued to dominate the Italian football, Marchisio underwent a painful recovery process for six months and is yet to regain his best form.
“This year I missed a lot of things because the injury came at the end of the season,” Marchisio said yesterday in Doha. “It wasn’t easy to recover. I was working in the morning and afternoon. It wasn’t easy, and I’m still not at 100 per cent,” he added.
However, the 30-year-old is looking at the future and wants to end 2016 on a high by winning the Italian Super Cup in Doha tomorrow. The Bianconeri face AC Milan at the Al Sadd stadium, aiming to win the trophy for the fourth time in five seasons.
And it’s a perfect opportunity for Marchisio to banish the personal troubles, while winning his third title of the year with Old Lady of Turin. “I’m a guy who doesn’t deal with it well when I’m out, I wanted to be strong and on the pitch. My 2016 was bittersweet, but I look at the positives. I won two major trophies and now I can take a third, the first of the season,” he said.
Marchisio, who has 263 caps with Juventus, is wary of Milan and believes they will be desperate to make amends for last year’s Coppa Italia final defeat at the hands of Juventus.
“It won’t be an easy match against Milan, who have already beaten us in the league,” Marchisio said. “We will have to be very careful because they are a team with a lot youngsters, who will want to show what they can do and want to confirm what they are doing. We want to end this year as we started it though, and make it perfect,” the midfielder added.
It is the ninth time the Italian Super Cup will be played outside Italy, and Milan only qualified for the match as Italian Cup runner-up after Juventus won both the league title and cup last season.
But Milan has turned things around this season under new coach Vincenzo Montella, fully embracing a youth movement. They are only two points behind second-place Roma. Juventus, however, is seemingly on an unstoppable march to a record sixth Serie A title.
Juventus held their training session at Aspire yesterday, with Milan only making their way to Doha last night after their flight from London was delayed by 24 hours due to technical problems.
Marchisio believes that the preparation will be key ahead of Friday’s encounter. “Our focus at the moment is on preparing ourselves as best we can by getting used to the playing surface and the climate here in Doha. Finals always come down to the smallest details.
“Our league defeat to Milan taught us that we must not underestimate anyone. If you are not at your best against any side at this level, you always risk losing, not least in a game like this where one mistake can cost you the trophy,” the Italian noted.