Juventus defender Federico Gatti believes Benfica were awarded an ‘absurd’ penalty kick and turns attention to the Bianconeri’s next two games against Lecce and PSG.
The Serie A giants faced Champions League elimination in the group stage following a 4-3 loss against Benfica in Lisbon.
Moise Kean scored the equaliser at minute 21, but just six minutes later, Benfica were awarded a penalty kick for a Juan Cuadrado handball inside the box.
“We are upset because we had scored the equaliser and then, in my opinion, they were given an absurd penalty kick,” Gatti told SportMediaset.
“[Juan] Cuadrado was standing still, of course, games change with these incidents. We reacted well, now we must focus on Lecce and then PSG because we want to go to Europa League at all costs.”
The last time Juventus faced elimination at this stage of the competition was in 2013-14 with Antonio Conte in charge of the Bianconeri.
The Italy defender made his Champions League debut this season, replacing Alex Sandro who was not fully fit and was only introduced in the second half.
Juventus are now ten points behind Serie A leaders Napoli and five below fourth-placed Atalanta.
This coming Saturday, they will visit Lecce at the Stadio Via Del Mare while next week PSG will travel to Turin for the final group stage game.
“We must go through this as a team, we have a difficult game against Lecce away, we play in three days, the next two games are crucial,” concluded Gatti.
Gatti’s teammate Manuel Locatelli blamed the players’ approach to the game but was happy with the team’s reaction in the final 20 minutes.
It might be true…but Benfica is more than deserving…they will finish top of the group and would be underrated CL favourite
The hand ball rules must be revised, we’ve seen many penalties given for completely unavoidable and/or unintentional hand balls. It diminishes the game and takes away from victory. For me, it should only lead to a penalty if it’s clearly intentional.
I’m completely supportive of VAR but since its introduction, many not deserved penalties like this have been granted to teams! are they literary asking the players to play and move like penguins by their arms straight down to their bodies!!!!