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Enough is enough. Massimiliano Allegri has hit his limit with the constant negativity around Juventus, from fans, media, the whole lot. If Juve win, it wasnt pretty enough. If Juve draw then its a sign of impending doom. And God forbid if Juve lose then its surely the end of the universe as we know it.

During his pre-match press conference as the Bianconeri head back to Naples to take on Napoli tomorrow in the second leg of the Coppa Italia semi-final protecting a 3-1 lead, Allegri was less than his usual reserved self.

First of all were in a good period, because with a month-and-a-half to go were playing for the final of the Coppa Italia, for the chance to go to the Champions League Semi-Finals and were currently still first in the Scudetto race.

So right now theres nothing more we could do. Then theres this negativity, this negative aura, its the one thing I hate. I think if we could see things positively it would be better.

I think this team has played a few finals over the past few years, weve won a couple of Coppa Italia, weve won two Scudetti, then one draw and its like none of that happened.

At the end of the day, the important thing is to achieve your objectives. Its also true that you have opponents, and winning is difficult.

You say winning is the norm but no, winning is extraordinary because only one team can win. Besides, this is a team which in the past three years has been to a Champions League final, were playing for another Coppa Italia final, and were in the fight for the Scudetto.

Right now we couldnt do more, thats a fact, like it or not.

In the course of a season, just as in individual games, there are moments where you play well and moments where youre less good, the important thing is having a clear objective.

Its not easy to achieve, the lads are doing incredible things, because there are opponents, because to always win is impossible.

The team is growing in Italy, but above all on a European level and I think thats important. I think thats the best result, regardless of the Scudetti won.

Right now Juventus are a respected team, thats the most important thing.

Then I hear you say - and Ill finish with this - that Juventus have lost five finals, seven finals - how many have they lost? - seven.

If you turn that around, and say Juventus played nine finals, its different. Because others didnt play them. Then at the end of the games you win or you lose.

You can reverse things and see the positives, but here you only see the negative goddamnit. Thats not good. Buona giornata.

Luckily, Allegri had spoken in an earlier part of the press conference when he was less incensed, at which time he had talked about Mario Mandzukic being out and other team news.

Its difficult for Mandzukic to make it for the game. Well assess him today, but hes unlikely to be there. Paulo Dybala and Juan Cuadrado are available.

As for the rest I dont know what to tell you, because well train today and after that Ill work out who will play tomorrow.

Will he take a conservative approach to tomorrows game with Juve holding a lead?

First of all theyre two different games. Sunday was a League game and this is a knockout game.

We have this important objective, to reach the Coppa Italia final for the third year in a row, then go to Rome and try to win it.

It wont be easy, because tomorrows game will be very open. Napoli are a team who played well on Sunday from a technical point of view, they caused us problems but we have everything it takes to reach the final.

We need to be very different in technical terms to what we showed on Sunday, technically we got a lot wrong and that meant we couldnt develop the play and thats why we were more defensive.

We gave away two or three shots after wed cheaply given the ball away, so we definitely need to play a different game from that point of view.

If youre technically better youll have more of the ball, which means you have to defend less.

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Allegri lashes out at negativity surrounding Juventus' performances - Black & White & Read All Over

Todd Blackadder has stressed the need for watertight discipline when Bath tackle European Challenge Cup quarter-final opponents Brive on Saturday.

Bath are not only on the rebound from a 53-10 Aviva Premiership drubbing against Saracens last weekend, they also face the French Top 14's leading points scorer in Gaetan Germain, who booted 23 points as Brive beat Montpellier last time out.

"Brive have a huge forward pack so discipline has to be key," Bath rugby director Blackadder said.

"They've also got the best goalkicker in the competition, so we have got to deny them the ball and play the attacking rugby we've talked about.

"The fact it is a knockout game gives us that extra pressure we need, making Brive almost the perfect team to bounce back against. We will have to match them physically, but also try to run them off their feet."

Saracens' loss was Bath's heaviest league defeat since 2002, but Blackadder continued: "Looking back, I really think that defeat at Saracens was the best thing that has happened to us for a long time.

"We were absolutely ripped apart, and I feel like the last month has been a slow death.

"We just haven't been playing the rugby we've been practising and preparing for. Now we have really got to turn this around and show a good response."

England fly-half George Ford is rested for Brive's Recreation Ground visit - Wales international Rhys Priestland deputises - while Australian Nathan Charles makes his debut in the front-row and England Under-20 star Zach Mercer joins back-row colleagues Tom Ellis and Taulupe Faletau.

Gloucester, bidding to win the Challenge Cup for a record-equalling third time this season, welcome back Wales forward Ross Moriarty for Saturday's Kingsholm appointment with Cardiff Blues.

Moriarty, wing Charlie Sharples and centre Billy Twelvetrees comprise changes following last week's Premiership victory over Bristol, while the Blues' starting XV includes former Wales captains Sam Warburton and Gethin Jenkins.

Gloucester rugby director David Humphreys said: "We know how important this game is. It's a knockout competition, one that we have enjoyed over the course of the last couple of years, and everyone is looking forward to it.

"We've talked all along about the opportunities to qualify for the Champions Cup next season.

"We want to get back to Kingsholm, show our supporters what this team is all about, build on last week's performance and build back a bit of pride with a big performance. Knockout rugby brings its own pressures, but I know we will respond to it this weekend."

The Blues were Challenge Cup winners in 2010, and head coach Danny Wilson added: "The goal for everyone concerned is a European trophy. If we were fortunate enough to get near that and challenge for it, it would be a great achievement for this group.

"These are the games you want to be in as a coach and a group of players, and we've got that opportunity on Saturday night."

Sunday's Challenge Cup quarter-final sees Blues' fellow Welsh challengers the Ospreys facing Stade Francais.

The Ospreys, whose quarter-final tie was switched to Cardiff's Principality Stadium due to their usual Liberty Stadium home being required by Swansea City this weekend, won all six pool games with bonus points.

"Stade had a big win over Toulon last weekend, which answers any questions anyone may have had about their mindset after the recent merger talks (with Racing 92)," Ospreys head coach Steve Tandy said.

"They have quality across the park, an immensely-physical pack and strength in depth in every position, so you can't look to isolate individual threats.

"There is plenty of quality in our squad as well, and we are welcoming back into the team individuals who have shown they can do it at the highest level - quality players and proven leaders."

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Todd Blackadder makes case for defence - Sportinglife.com

Video Assistant Referees could be deployed in English football as early as August when the EFL Cup first round takes place.

The Football Association has indicated VARs could be trialled in next season's FA Cup, beginning in January 2018 with the FA Cup third round when Premier League teams join the competition.

But, if a trial is approved by the EFL board, VARs could be used in the EFL Cup from as soon as the first round.

EFL chief executive Shaun Harvey said on Wednesday: "As part of a trial the board will consider allowing the EFL Cup to be utilised.

"There are a number of rounds of the EFL Cup prior to that (the FA Cup third round).

"Theoretically it could happen from the first round of the EFL Cup, which would be a team no higher than the Championship down to League Two."

VARs are currently being trialled, with FIFA president Gianni Infantino keen to employ the system during the 2018 World Cup in Russia.

The video official in Tuesday night's friendly between France and Spain corrected two wrong decisions - disallowing an offside effort by Antoine Griezmann and awarding a goal for Gerard Deulofeu after an incorrect offside flag. Spain won 2-0 in Paris.

Approval for VARs to be employed in the EFL Cup could come as soon as May.

There is likely to be a longer wait before VARs can be utilised in the Championship, League One and League Two, due to the lack of cameras currently available across stadia.

Although some stadia will have the capacity to utilise VARs in the league, the EFL believe it is important for the same facilities to be available throughout.

Goal line technology is likely to come into the Championship for the first time next season.

Harvey, who on Wednesday spoke at SportsPro Live where he talked about new streaming product iFollow, added: "One of the real challenges is the integrity of the games.

"If you don't have the technology available at every single game in the competition, does that potentially have a negative impact on the competition as a whole?

"Ultimately (in the EFL Cup) it doesn't matter then if it's not used at every single game in that round because each individual game is a knockout game in its own right.

"Technology's got to work with the EFL as well and be possible as part of the whole, not just in part.

"But that should never be interpreted as the EFL not wanting to embrace technology or being against it.

"It's just the absolute practicalities and the cost effectiveness of being able to implement it."

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Video Assistant Referees could be used in EFL Cup first round next season - Eurosport.com

England must learn from Wilfried Zaha's switch to the Ivory Coast and "love" and nurture prospects from smaller clubs, according to Crystal Palace chairman Steve Parish.

Zaha, 24, played two friendlies for England and represented them at age group levels but reverted to the country of his birth in time for January's African Nations Cup.

England manager Gareth Southgate has pledged to focus on players who are "desperate to play for England" as he addresses the dual-nationality question.

But Parish declared himself devastated to see a "ludicrous" talent slip away and called for a fresh approach.

"The whole England set-up gave Wilfried no love and it is a shame that we lost him," he told the Times. " Wilfried was waiting and waiting for that call.

"It is devastating for us as we always thought we would see him in an England shirt. We need to learn our lessons. You would not see Brazil let a player like that go."

The proportion of English-qualified players in Premier League line-ups hovers around the one-third mark and Parish warned that those who do break through must be appreciated.

He said: "If we constantly neglect these kids, as their face does not fit or they are not maturing at the rate we want them to, then you can't tell the Premier League that we have to have more and more English players playing.

"It has a lot to do with the less glamorous clubs. Every now and then, a club like Palace throws up a gem. Our gems do tend to be a bit rough around the edges when they start out, they need to be honed.

"Anybody who watched Wilfried will tell you some of the things he does are ludicrous. Do we not want that? I can't believe there was not a role for Wilfried at England."

A statement issued by Zaha's agent Will Salthouse on Tuesday took issue with questions over his passion and insisted the player had never set a deadline for an England call-up - the "disappearing egg-timer" referenced by Southgate on Monday.

And Parish took aim at former England defender Danny Mills' suggestion on Tuesday that the winger took "the easy way out" by switching allegiance.

"What is easier, travelling thousands of miles every time you have to play a game?" he said. "Put England in a knockout game against Ivory Coast and it is not going to be 4-0 to England, is it? They will give England a game."

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Palace chairman Parish urges England to learn from Zaha switch to Ivory Coast - Eurosport.com

Recent results will count very little when the Warriors travel to face the Knights in the Momentum One-Day Cup playoff in Bloemfontein tomorrow.

The Warriors beat the Knights twice in the round-robin stages of this campaign.

The first was a low-scoring affair in Kimberley and the other a run-laden match in Port Elizabeth, where the Knights came a lot closer than perhaps they should have.

But Warriors coach Malibongwe Maketa yesterday dismissed previous showings, saying the team which pitched and held their nerve would book a spot in the final against the Titans in Centurion on Friday.

That will count for nothing, Maketa said. Its a playoff game and its about who rocks up on the day that will take it. But as I have said in the past, we have been involved in three knockout games since Ive been in charge. So we have that experience and hopefully we can channel that experience in Bloemfontein and claim a spot in the final.

The Warriors qualified for the playoff with a 36-run Duckworth-Lewis Method victory over the Lions in a rain-affected, final pool game at St Georges Park on Thursday.

On a slow surface, the Warriors spinners were once again superb and put the skids on the Lions batsmen, with Jon-Jon Smuts taking four wickets.

Smuts then made a quick 50 with good support from Gihahn Cloete as they wasted no time against the new ball in getting the team off to a flying start. Strangely, when their wickets fell, the middle order appeared to creep into its shell.

It was not an easy pitch to bat on and the way Jon-Jon Smuts and Gihahn Cloete batted up front is how we planned it. Unfortunately, we lost a couple of wickets and then showed some jitters, which was not good to see. But we learn from that experience and move on to a big knockout game against the Knights on Sunday, Maketa said.

The Knights are unlikely to prepare a surface which suits the Warriors effective spin attack, so it may come down to how the seamers perform. The squads are:

Warriors: Colin Ackermann, Colin Ingram, Gihahn Cloete, Aya Gqamane, Andrew Birch, Lesiba Ngoepe, Jerry Nqolo, Jon-Jon Smuts (capt), Yaseen Vallie, Basheer Walters, Kelly Smuts, Sisanda Magala, Anrich Nortje

Knights: Patrick Botha, Mbulelo Budaza, Marchant de Lange, Leus du Plooy, Dillon Du Preez, David Miller, Grant Mokoena, Tshepo Ntuli, Diego Rosier, Rudi Second, Aubrey Swanepoel, Pite van Biljon, Shadley van Schalkwyk, Lwandilwe Zuma

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Back to square one as Warriors eye final berth - HeraldLIVE - Herald live