Conte keen to end Parma hoodoo

Published: 10 Sep 2011 - 13:00:14

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Juventus coach Antonio Conte admitted Saturday he is excited about making his coaching debut for the club and vowed to end the team's Parma hoodoo.

Juve start the Serie A season by hosting Parma at their new 41,000 capacity stadium, the first of its kind in Italy to be privately owned by a club.

For Conte - who had a distinguished playing career at Juventus - it will be his first competitive game at the club's helm having taken over in the summer after guiding Siena to promotion to Serie A.

"Ok, I admit it, I'm very excited, there's no point hiding it," the 42-year-old told journalists.

"On Thursday at the inauguration ceremony (for the new stadium) I was very emotional.

"This isn't a job like any other, I'll be emotional but also very lucid, that's for sure, but this eve of match is different to any other.

"We're playing a Parma side who have beaten us in our last three matches so we're going to put our antenna facing the right direction and start with a bang."

And Conte - who played 296 games for the Turin giants, winning five league titles and the Champions League in 1996 - has vowed to play attractive football.

"We need to be ready to write a new page in this wonderful stadium," said Conte.

"I don't know if we'll be there yet but I know that we're on the right path, and that's playing good football."

And after Friday night's entertaining 2-2 draw between AC Milan and Lazio, Conte believes Italy is in line for a new dawn of attacking football.

"They played football, always trying to beat each other. In Italy we're still backwards, trying too much to defend a result. But that mentality is changing."