Delhi Dynamos marquee player Alessandro Del Piero made his long-awaited return to action, coming on as a second half substitute in the crunch clash against Pune City. The Italian’s introduction lifted his teammates, who eventually broke the deadlock to win 0-1 thanks to a late, brilliant goal from in-form Brazilian Gustavo dos Santos. In an exclusive post-match interview with indiansuperleague.com, Del Piero spoke of how a late winner can lift a team’s morale, which is all the more important in Delhi’s case as they face a tough game in Chennai in their final match of the season. Del Piero emphasised that though the team would no doubt savour this victory, the match against league leaders Chennaiyin is all that matters now, with Delhi needing a win to ensure their spot in the top four (although a draw may still be enough if other results go their way).The Juventus legend also revealed how happy he is to see fans in India wearing the famous shirt, bearing his name, of his old club. While not surprised at Juventus’ and the Italian national team’s popularity here, considering how football is such a globally loved sport, Del Piero was nonetheless delighted with the support fans have given him all across the country.Alessandro, congratulations on the win! This a winning return for you – how do you feel?Thank you very much! I’m very happy. It was important that we won this game because whoever won this game will probably go onto the semifinals. But the work is not done. We need to have another great game against Chennaiyin in four days."I want to say thank you to all the fans who wear the black-and-white Juventus jersey with my name on it."Alessandro Del PieroThis was a very tight game; you got a late goal, which is always good for team morale. What are your thoughts on that? It’s very good when you score in the last minute. But, we had a great chance before that. Pune City had a great chance as well, when Pennant hit the post, and another one with Dudu. I thought it was a good 0-0 because there were many chances for both sides.What are your thoughts heading into the final game of the season? It’s a must-win. Nothing special. We need a great game. Whether we need one point or three, we’ll see what happens in the other games – but it doesn’t matter. We need a great game.You’ve played against all the teams now. Which team do you think is the team to beat? You (Delhi) have come back, Goa made a great comeback. You’re peaking at the right time – you’re playing better now than at the beginning of the tournament. It’s pretty hard to understand, over the three months. When you play matches in a short time, like we did when we played in Mumbai, in Goa, and then in Kerala one after the other, it’s pretty tough. But that’s happened for everybody. The standings are what they are, at the end of the day.How’s the team morale?Well, when you win in the last minute, the team morale is high!Can you compare this experience to anywhere else you’ve played?Well, this league is very different! But it’s good. We’ve had great moments with the fans. I want to say thank you to all the fans who wear the black-and-white Juventus jersey with my name on it.Are you surprised to see Juventus and Italy fans here?Not really! We won the World Cup in 2006, and Juventus is famous around the world. It’s great to see such fans.
