Juventus caretaker coach Angelo Alessio was bristling yesterday over comments from Shakhtar Donetsk counterpart Mircea Lucescu.

Juve need to avoid defeat in Ukraine to qualify for the Champions League knockouts.

Lucescu, formerly of Inter and Brescia, provoked a stir when he suggested Juve were 'predictable.'

"He can say we're predictable, but we create many scoring opportunities. In that case let's call Barcelona predictable - the same XI play pretty much all the time and everyone knows the style of football they propose, yet they are the best team of recent years," replied Alessio.

"Lucescu's words remain just that: words. We are extremely concentrated on this match and absolutely want to reach the next round of the Champions League.

"We'll be facing the toughest side in the group, as they are the leaders, but we have improved and can get a result.

"We cannot play for a draw and count on being able to get two results. We've got to take the game to Shakhtar and play the way we know how. We must fight for every single ball."