Only Champions League triumph will keep me at Juve, says Lippi

Juventus coach Marcello Lippi said he would quit if he fails to guide the Italian club to Champions League success next season.

Juventus lost to AC Milan on penalties in Wednesday's all-Italian final in Manchester, Lippi's third failure in four European Cup finals as coach of the Turin club.

"We will try again with all our energy to win the Champions League final next year. If we do I will stay, otherwise I'll leave to spend more time with my grandson Lorenzo," Lippi, whose contract ends in 2005 but has a one-year extension clause, said Friday.

"To have only won twice in seven finals (in the club's history) is a poor return for a team like Juventus that has won more league championships than anyone (in Serie A). I'm determined to get us to a fifth final."

His only triumph was against Ajax in Rome in 1996, but Lippi is far from dishearted by his record on Europe's biggest stage.

"I don't feel like a loser. I am a coach who always puts out a team prepared to give 100 per cent.

"In six and a half years at Juventus I have always won something and in the year I was sacked I took the team to the European Cup quarter-finals.

"If you win you're a hero and if you lose you're an idiot," added Lippi, in his second spell with the Serie A champions."