Wojciech Szczesny was in no mood to accept compliments for his many incredible saves against Sevilla in the Europa League semi-final. ‘Juventus compete to win trophies, not to participate.’
The Bianconeri had taken the lead through substitute Dusan Vlahovic, after the 1-1 first leg result, but a Suso screamer from distance and Erik Lamela free header turned it around in extra time.
Easily the best performer on the night for the Old Lady was their goalkeeper, especially an extraordinary save to claw the Lucas Ocampos diving header away when it had at least 50 per cent crossed the line.
“If I make lots of saves, that is not a good sign for our performance. All the saves were futile this evening, there is great disappointment,” Szczesny told Sky Sport Italia.
It is the second consecutive campaign in which Juventus have ended empty-handed, but at least last season they reached the Coppa Italia Final and lost the Supercoppa Italiana, both to Inter.
This time they went out of the Champions League in the group phase and only reached the semi-final of the Europa League and Coppa Italia.
“We compete to win trophies, not to participate, so with all the difficulties we had and all the growth we’ve seen from the young lads this season, it is still a campaign without trophies and that’s not good.”
Even seeing the replay of that save on Ocampos failed to raise Szczesny’s morale.
“It’s a good save, but not much consolation now. I’d rather have a bad game and see the team qualify for the Final.”
Now that they cannot win any more silverware, Szczesny was asked how the off the field problems this season affected the locker room atmosphere.
“In all honesty, I think it actually helped us. It united the squad, we felt like we were in war against everyone and everything. Admittedly, hearing sentences and points penalties doesn’t help anyone. We are second in Serie A now, we don’t know where we’ll be next week.
“There is confusion. Organisation is important for a club and this season has been very strange.”
The entire Board of Directors resigned due to the capital gains scandal and the team was docked 15 Serie A points, later restored on appeal pending a new verdict, which is due on Monday.
It is expected that Juventus will be penalised by nine point this time around.
Very lucky keeper – he did not have to save that penalty from the 45th minute 😉