Juventus defender Giorgio Chiellini says he will not pay Luis Suarez any special attention in next month's Champions League final. The Barcelona attacker and the Bianconeri centre-back are set to meet for the first time since the Uruguayan received a four-month ban for biting the 30-year-old Italian during a World Cup group match last summer. Chiellini insists that the incident is firmly in the past and says he will not treat Suarez any differently to Real Madrid trio Cristiano Ronaldo, Karim Benzema and Gareth Bale, whom he helped successfully nullify in the last four of the Champions League. "It has been a week since we knocked out Real Madrid and people only ask me about Suarez," he told reporters.
"I bear no grudges. I have no problem with him. I will mark him the way I did Benzema, Ronaldo, Bale or any other striker, so there's nothing different about it.
"The only thing that disappointed me that time was going out of the World Cup."
Chiellini added that nothing was more important than the match against Barcelona on June 6: "It's a special game. It's been far too long since we won the European Cup."
Before their meeting in Berlin, Juventus face Lazio in the Coppa Italia final on Wednesday and the former Fiorentina man is hoping to complete a domestic double before switching his attention to Barca.
"It’s a special final because Juventus haven’t won this trophy for a long time," he stated. "I’ve been here for 10 years and in all this time we’ve got to just one Coppa Italia final and the fact we lost it still rankles.
"Winning this one is really important to us and our thoughts are exclusively on the game.
"Our strength has always been our ability to take things one game at a time. We’ll focus on tomorrow’s game and try to win, then we’ll shift our attentions to the match on June 6, but there’s still a long way to go before you can talk about a possible treble.
"What’s important is maintaining our will to win and celebrate, because that’s been the driving force behind our success over these past few years.
"We’ve done well to not rest on our laurels and that’s been our strength in recent seasons."
Chiellini did, however, warn his team-mates that Lazio's Felipe Anderson can hurt their chances of success at the Stadio Olimpico.
"Felipe Anderson’s got a good engine, pace, skill, passing ability and a decent shot on him," he added.
"He’s put in consistent displays and his explosion on to the scene has enabled Lazio to make an important step up. (Goal)
Forgiven and forgotten...
ReplyDelete