Spalletti Takes Blame for Juventus' Late Collapse at Sassuolo
Luciano Spalletti did not hide. After watching his side overturn the game at Sassuolo only to let it slip again, the Juventus coach walked into the interview zone already knowing the central theme of the night: balance lost, points thrown away.
“It hurts a lot because the guys deservedly turned the game around,” he admitted, the frustration still raw. “We lost our balance, and that's something you can't do.”
Juventus had chased the win aggressively once they wrestled control back, and that, Spalletti insisted, was no accident. It was his call.
“The players tried to go and win it. I was the one who pushed them to go and win this game,” he said. “Perhaps they followed what I asked a little too literally, because in the end we had too many players pushing into the Sassuolo box.”
The intention, he argued, came from the right place: a club that refuses to settle.
“You also have to take the positive intention from the team: we lost because we were giving all we could to win it and not draw,” Spalletti continued. “Of course, there's definitely some responsibility on our part, but it all came from the desire to go and win the game.”
Vicario echoes warning on lost balance
Goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario stood on the same line as his coach. No excuses, no soft landing.
“We’re really disappointed,” he said. “I understand the desire to go and win the game because Juventus have an obligation to do that, but we lost our balance and it's something we'd spoken about during the week.”
That was the sting. The problem was not new. It had been flagged, discussed, underlined. And then repeated on the pitch.
“There's regret and anger because the game had turned in our favour,” Vicario added. “We need to be a little more careful because we're a team with a lot of quality.”
The message from both dressing room and dugout was clear: ambition is non‑negotiable at Juventus. But if they cannot weld that ambition to control, how many more nights like Sassuolo will they have to live through?
