Conte to make changes for Coppa clash

Juventus coach Antonio Conte has warned his men not to underestimate AC Milan in Wednesday’s Coppa Italia quarter-final in Turin.

The 43-year-old has admitted that he is likely to make some changes to his team, but insists that the Rossoneri are a team to be reckoned with.

“Milan deserve to be respected. We will meet a great team. We have reached the quarter-finals of the competition and they will want to go as far as possible,” Conte told reporters.

“Obviously, we have the desire to put in a great performance. I might decide to make a few changes to the team and field some players who have not been regulars.

“I expect a response from those players who will get a chance. I want to see progress from all my players.

“(Luca) Marrone could feature in (Andrea) Pirlo’s position. (Mirko) Vucinic is having some physical problems and we’ll have to deal with that. We cannot afford to miss him for a long time.

“The Coppa Italia gives me the opportunity to field those who have played less so far this season. It’s a tough test, but one that allows me to assess the development of my players.”

Claudio Marchisio will miss the clash through injury but Conte is confident he won’t be out for too long.

“Marchisio’s injury is thankfully just heavy bruising,” he said. “He should shake it off in the next few days. I’m happy it’s nothing serious.”

Juve enter the clash on the back of a surprise loss to Sampdoria in the Serie A at the weekend.

“We should never end up losing a game when playing 11 against 10. We should have won that game. There were some peculiar incidents in which we were unfortunate,” he said.