Pressure on Juventus

Coach Javier Irureta said his strikers let Juventus off the hook despite Deportivo La Coruna winning 1-0 in Spain last night.

Irureta said: 'The scoreline wasn't a reflection of our merits in this game. We lacked precision in front of goal and that's something we're going to have to improve on.'

Forward Alberto Luque blasted in a 36th-minute volley to win the game but Diego Tristan, Sergio and Juan Carlos Valeron all missed excellent chances.

Irureta added: 'The important thing was that we managed to keep a clean sheet. That means they will have to go into the second leg looking for two goals to knock us out.'

Meanwhile, Juventus coach Marcello Lippi said: 'We didn't play a good game.

'Deportivo have a good chance to get through this tie but so do we. We had some bad moments early on but we improved and in the second half we had a few chances.'

Lippi was unhappy with the defending that led to Deportivo's goal after a poor headed clearance from Lilian Thuram. He said: 'The goal came from Deportivo's least dangerous chance. I hope things go better in the second leg.'