Chiellini: “I was wrong about 'you pay', but you couldn't call a penalty”

The story of one of the hardest nights of his career could not be missing in Giorgio Chiellini's autobiography, 1-3 with Real Madrid in 2018. Despite the 0-3 in the first leg, Juventus believed in the feat mainly due to the absence of Sergio Ramos: “It was our incentive”said the defense. Chiellini says that a couple of days before the game, he told Barzagli and Buffon that they would not take him for crazy if “a little” believed in the comeback. Indeed, they came to touch: “When we went 0-2, we saw that the presumption of the whites turned to fear.”

La Vecchia Signora also made the third, but his dream ended in the discount, when Cristiano made the penalty forced by Lucas Vázquez. A maximum penalty that Chiellini still does not accept: “I think a penalty in '94 should be whistled only if there is absolute certainty, and that was not the case. However, allowing that play at that time, creating a desperate situation, was our mistake.”

The decision of referee Michael Oliver caused angry protests by the juventini that are already history. Chiellini admitted: “Buffon and I lost the papers, but you can award that penalty in the 10 'or in the middle of the second half. In 93' and 50 seconds there should be no doubt. And from the field we understood that it was nothing Clear”. The Vecchia Signora defender, at those moments, made a highly criticized gesture on the pitch: he shouted at Varane “You pay, you pay!”, 'you pay'. “They were wrong words”, acknowledges Chiellini in the book, “A wrong reaction in a turbulent ending. Nothing more.”