Trez scored 6 goals in 6 games in the 1st group stage of the Champions League to help Juventus qualify

Objectives achieved
He said: "As far as the Champions League was concerned, the important thing for us was to have qualified with a game in hand and top of the group "We've done well in the Champions League, playing at a very high level but then you pay for that in the league. Yet, even if you could call our recent Serie A form and our position a little critical, in the end we're not worried because we are not that far from the top of the table and because we can improve and start to play in Serie A at the same level as in the Champions League."

Changed team
Trezeguet offers a two-fold explanation for the indifferent form which currently sees Juve in sixth place, six points behind surprise leaders, AC Chievo Verona. As well as stressing the difficulty of doing well in both the Champions League and the domestic league, he also points out that this year's Juventus is a much-changed side. The departure of midfield wizard Zinedine Zidane and the arrival of Czech midfielder Pavel Nedved, goalkeeper Gigi Buffon and French defender Lillian Thuram, not to mention the return of coach Marcello Lippi, all mean that the club are still in the midst of a reconstruction process.

Zidane effect
Trezeguet says: "It's difficult to do well in both competitions, it is a question of physical well-being and its hard to be at your best every three days. Then too, with the departure of Zidane, the team has obviously become less "technical" even if it has become a team of a certain athletic commitment."

New system
He adds: "Obviously, this season has been difficult because it is not just that Zidane played to a tremendously high level here for five years but it is also the fact that Juventus depended on him a great deal. Therefore it has been doubly difficult for us since we've had to change both system and players. Juve used to play a 4-3-1-2 in which a great player like Zidane was the playmaker behind two front strikers, Now, we're playing a 4-4-2 with two wide men in midfield. To make that change in just two months is very difficult."

	Trezeguet lost Zidane over the summer, instead he gained new competition for his spot in Salas

Thuram boost
Nevertheless, the 24-year-old is convinced that Juventus are good enough to win the Champions League and he points to one of the new arrivals, his compatriot and French team-mate Thuram, as proof of his theory, saying: "Look at Thuram, he's one of the best defenders in the world but he left [Parma AC] and came here, I think, because he realised that he'd never win the Champions League with them because he knows that Juventus have very high ambitions."

World Cup form
The scorer of six goals in the Champions League and three in Serie A so far this season, Trezeguet appears to be maintaining a reasonable strike rate in this FIFA World Cup finals season, as he works to hold on to his squad place with the reigning World Champions. The man who came on as a substitute to score the winning "golden goal" in the EURO 2000" final against Italy, is convinced that France remain as strong as ever, even if they are currently denied anything more than warm-up friendlies.

Friendly fire
He said: "Obviously, it's very difficult for us at the moment because friendlies are friendlies but we're in very good shape, all the same, in good shape technically, physically and mentally and I'd say we've every chance of winning the World Cup."

New blood
"[Laurent] Blanc and [Didier] Deschamps have gone but they've been replaced by players with a huge drive to win. If we build on the spirit of EURO 2000", then I'd have to be very optimistic about the World Cup finals."

This article is entitled from "Trezeguet optimistic on every front", taken from UEFA Magazine. The images are not original.