The team’s response against Atalanta. Now it is society that has to react to the “unfair sentence”
First anger and then pride. All in just over forty-eight hours: that is, how many hours passed between Friday evening, when the news of the fifteen-point penalty became official, and Sunday when Danilo discharged the free-kick in the final 3-3 draw against Atalanta. Under the anything but casual gaze of John Elkann, Juventus thus avoided defeat with a show of great character, coming back twice against Gasperini’s team. And never mind if for the first time, because of those three goals conceded, the bianconeri have also given Napoli the satisfaction of having the least beaten defense in the championship.
Juventus’ problems are now different, as the new managers underlined in the stands, starting with the managing director Maurizio Scanavino, who made his debut in front of the television cameras speaking of an “unfair and unjust sentence”, promising battle with appeals and appeals. Words that followed the previous comments of the new president Gianluca Ferrero and the company’s lawyers, according to which there was a difference in treatment against the Juventus managers. With these premises, straddling the “manita” of Naples, which had abruptly cut short Juventus’ run-up, and the uncomfortable visit of Atalanta, very fast after the eight goals scored against Salernitana, it wasn’t easy to reunite the team.
And instead the pitch proved right to yesterday’s world champion like Claudio Gentile, who knowing Juventus’ DNA had no doubts about the players’ reaction, and to today’s European champion like captain Leonardo Bonucci, according to whom “the Juventus is a seven-headed dragon and if you cut off one, another will appear.” Waiting to know what will happen on the pitch, and above all off it, amid the anger of the managers and the pride of the players, Massimiliano Allegri’s true “Juve style” attitude, which today would have liked so much, must not be overshadowed to Gianni Agnelli, exactly twenty years after his death. No controversy from him, despite the Tuscan spirit, no desire to vindicate or underline his objective difficulties, among other things after the avalanche of criticisms received since the beginning of the season. Indeed, an invitation to the team to concentrate even more on seeking a comeback that will reopen a door for the Champions League, apparently impossible for the others but not for him.
In fact, fifteen penalty points are not an absolute novelty in Serie A. Yes, because after Calciopoli even Reggina in the summer of 2006, when Juventus was in Serie B, started with the same handicap, then reduced to minus eleven before Christmas, and in the end he was saved thanks to a masterpiece by another Tuscan coach, Walter Mazzarri. Different times and cases, in agreement, with a single decisive point in common: the coach’s ability to isolate the team from the external environment. Just what he was able to do in the best way Allegri. And so the final applause from the Juventus fans this time goes above all to him, capable of winning even after a draw. With a lesson in style, not a short face.
January 24 – 08:43
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