Locatelli: ‘Juventus gave heart and soul, feel like crying’
Manuel Locatelli admits he ‘feels like crying’ after Juventus capitulated to Galatasaray in extra time. ‘We put our heart and soul into this game, this is the team we must always be.’
This was always going to be practically impossible to turn around the 5-2 first leg defeat in Istanbul, even more so after Lloyd Kelly was sent off in the 48th minute with Juve 1-0 up on the night from a Locatelli penalty.
Nonetheless, they forced extra time with Federico Gatti and Weston McKennie goals, had a big chance to win it with Edon Zhegrova, then ultimately the extra man was felt with two late Victor Osimhen and Baris Alper Yilmaz strikes.
Locatelli so proud of Juventus effort
Galatasaray enter the Champions League Round of 16, winning 7-5 on aggregate, but the Allianz Juventus Stadium crowd applauded their team’s truly heroic efforts down to 10 men for over an hour.
“I honestly feel like crying, we genuinely believed,” Locatelli told Amazon Prime Video Italia.
“We put our heart and soul into this game, even more than that. An incident made it all more complicated in the first leg, but today I want to thank everyone from the bottom of my heart.
“The atmosphere in the stadium was incredible, these are nights that stay with you. We soaked up the energy from them that we needed.”
Juve had been criticised for lacking a fighting spirit this season, but that could not be an accusation levelled at them this evening, coming so close to an incredible turnaround.
“We gave our heart and soul. I always ask the players to do that, and tonight we really did, so this is what we’ve got to carry with us going forward,” added Locatelli.
“This is the Juventus we wanted to see, and the one we must always be. We need to always try to play at this level. We are on the right track and mustn’t lose that believe.”
There were some big chances that went begging tonight, and Khephren Thuram was in tears on the touchline after McKennie equalised on aggregate.
“I think we can only compliment the players tonight for their efforts, mistakes can happen. Now we’ve got another important game coming up against Roma and must focus on that.”