It's a new Real, says Juventus coach Capello

Juventus coach Fabio Capello was very optimistic that they could beat Real Madrid when the Champions League last 16 draw was made in December but he sung a different song.

The two former European champions meet in their first leg on Tuesday.

"I think that Madrid under (Wanderley) Luxemburgo have improved a lot, in tactics, in defence, and in various other ways," Capello told a press conference.

Capello, a former Real Madrid coach himself, stopped short of criticising Luxemburgo's predecessor Mariano Garcia Remon but clearly has more respect for the new man at the helm.

Luxemburgo, a former Brazil national team coach, took over at Real on December 30 after Garcia Remon had been pushed aside.

"Real have players of great calibre, they are a team that can win a game at any moment. I think that the best thing we can do will be to stop them," added Capello, hinting that the game may not be quite the anticipated classic.

"As for their defeat on Saturday (when Real lost 2-0 to Athletic Bilbao, their first loss under Luxemburgo), well they played without four players, four very important players, and four players can make a big difference."

Capello looks likely to bolster his defence against Real and is expected to opt for just one target man, which will almost certainly be Alessandro Del Piero.

Madrid fans have bad memories of the Italian international, as he was one of the goal scorers the last time the two sides met, in the 2003 Champions League semi-final second leg when Juventus won 3-1 to oust the nine-times champions of Europe.

"This will be a different game though, with different players. Many things have changed from two years ago," commented Del Piero.

"Not least, Real now have (Thomas) Gravesen. I've seen him play with Everton in English football," grinned Del Piero, with reference to Real's newly acquired Danish international and midfield enforcer.

One of Gravesen's jobs on Tuesday will be to knock Del Piero out of his stride.