© EuroFootball.com
The star of Juventus Pavel Nedved stated that as his career nears its end, he would like to finish it off by winning the UEFA Champions League. The experienced Czech also admitted that for the Italian team, this season the most prestigious European football tournament will be more important than the Italian championship.
"The Champions League is our main goal," said 33-year-old P.Nedved. "We will focus more on this league than on the Italian championship."
"But in the Champions League, you can't afford to lose any knockout matches. You can't collect points as easily as in the group stage," he added.
The experienced Czech, who recently extended his contract with an Italian club until 2008, also stated that one of the key factors in regaining glory in Europe will be the new addition to the team, Patrick Vieira.
"We will see everything in time, but earlier we lacked one player - the leader P.Vieira. Now we have him, so we can achieve a lot," Nedved said.
It was precisely the goal of winning the Champions League that helped P.Nedved finally decide to retire and close the door to the Czech national team.
"It was easy to decide because of health reasons, but certainly not because of the heart," regretted P.Nedved. "It's strange to finish everything, but most likely I wouldn't be able to handle it all physically. After all, I am already thirty-three years old and with Lilian Thuram we are the oldest in the Juventus team."
