Sassuolo coach Alessio Dionisi praised goalkeeper Andrea Consigli for his match-winning save against Juventus, the best response to ‘pseudo football experts’ who blamed him for the loss at Verona.
The Neroverdi have really become giant-killers in recent weeks, getting all three points against Milan, Atalanta, Roma and now Juventus to climb back up the table, yet they fumbled a lead to lose 2-1 in stoppages at Hellas Verona.
“We had a lot of players out injured in the first half of the season, changed personnel upfront and it was not easy,” Dionisi told DAZN.
“I heard too much criticism aimed at this squad, especially over the last week. It’s laughable to see people criticise Consigli and in fact today we saw the 1-0 result guaranteed by a great Consigli save.
“When he made that save, I thought of all the pseudo football experts who like the sound of their own voices. Those who put all the blame on him for that defeat will see that today he won it for us.”
The fans also had a message for the veteran goalkeeper, with a banner at half-time assuring he was ‘one of us’ and a ‘proud’ representative of the club.
“We had more shots on goal against Verona probably than any other game, but we didn’t convert them and them had the wrong attitude in the final minutes. It was no better or worse a performance than this one.”
Sassuolo had only managed to beat Juventus twice in 20 competitive meetings until today, 2-1 away in October 2021 and 1-0 at home in October 2015.
Both goalkeepers made stunning saves, but substitute Gregoire Defrel pounced on a Nicolò Fagioli error to drill in on the turn after a corner kick for the winning goal.
“We showed courage and knew luck would turn our way. The lads are proving today that they do believe, it’s not just words. I have to defend players because errors happen, those were good performances and the wheel turns.”