Giorgio Chiellini is proud of the Juventus players who fought valiantly against Galatasaray, but blasted the decision to send off Lloyd Kelly.
Despite being reduced to 10 men, the Bianconeri completed a surreal comeback in the Champions League play-off round. After 90 minutes, the score showed 3-0 on the night, and 5-5 on aggregate, forcing extra time.
In the end, the Italian giants naturally ran out of steam, as the Turkish champions scored two extra-time goals courtesy of Victor Osimhen and Baris Yilmaz to earn their place in the Round of 16.
Chiellini glad he wasn’t in Lloyd Kelly’s shoes
After the contest, Juventus head coach Luciano Spalletti didn’t show up for post-match interviews. Instead, Chiellini filled in for the 66-year-old, explaining that the latter was feeling mentally drained after the intense 120 minutes.
I think it’s right for the club to speak, there’s nothing wrong with that,” said the club’s Director of Football Strategy via JuventusNews24.
“We’re tired and disappointed with the final result, especially after the effort we put in and what we showed today, but we’re also proud of our performance, of the feeling and the atmosphere that had been created.
“I believe that has to be the starting point for this final stretch of the season, so we can turn things around and find that spark it gave us. In the end, if we manage to be more balanced, we’ve really only got one match and 30 minutes wrong — a game and a half since Luciano arrived.”
Juventus have been on the wrong end of controversial refereeing decisions as of late, and this time, Kelly was sent off at the start of the second half for grazing his opponent’s calf following a jump.
The Englishman was incredulous with the decision, but Chiellini insisted that his reaction would have been much more ferocious if he were in the 27-year-old’s place.
“There’s great regret, there’s disappointment. We haven’t been very lucky with certain incidents at the moment, but we move forward.
“Luckily, I wasn’t in Kelly’s place.”
Chiellini confirms Juventus desire to keep Luciano Spalletti
Chiellini also took the opportunity to reconfirm the club’s plan to go forward with Spalletti, as the two parties are expected to sign a contract extension in the coming weeks.
“If you’ve listened to what I’ve been saying over the past few weeks, there has never been any doubt about Juventus’ future coach, about Luciano’s future.
“I think you’ve all seen and experienced with us the schedule we’ve had in recent weeks — we’ve barely had time to breathe or even go home from time to time.
“Now, unfortunately, we’ll have a few more free weeks, but fortunately that also means we’ll have some time to sit down, share our plans for the future and then formalise everything in due course.
“We’ve already taken a look at the various contract renewals as well, and Luciano has always been a priority — it has never been a doubt.”
The Tuscan manager had agreed to sign a short-term deal until the end of the season after replacing Igor Tudor in late October.
