On the eve of Juventus’ decisive Champions League playoff second leg against Galatasaray, Luciano Spalletti faced the media to deliver a passionate and philosophical reflection on his team, the club’s current difficulties and the path to a possible comeback in Turin.
Speaking ahead of a night that could define Juventus’ European season, the coach stressed unity, character and the power of the Allianz Stadium as key ingredients if the Bianconeri are to stand any chance of overturning the heavy first-leg deficit.
“We Need the Eyes and Hearts of Our Fans”
Spalletti opened his press conference by focusing on the atmosphere he hopes to see created inside the stadium.
He explained that some matches are not simply played, but “composed”, requiring the involvement of everyone connected to the club.
“There are matches that are not just played, they are composed,” he said. “You need to create a context, you need the participation of the whole environment and we need the eyes and the hearts of our fans. Every time I’ve gone out and felt the crowd really involved, we have become stronger.
“More than a single moment or gesture, it is the context that allows you to use your technical qualities. We know this is a difficult moment, but this time we are really asking them to stay close to us, because with them by our side we become stronger.”
Yildiz: “For Us He Is Already a Leader”
Spalletti reserved special praise for Kenan Yildiz, underlining the young forward’s personality and importance within the squad despite his age.
“For us he is already a leader, even though he is very young – a point of reference,” Spalletti said. “He shows it in the calm he brings, even in difficult moments, and in his ease in trying new things when everything seems complicated.
“He has the characteristics of a leader, the one who takes players on, but above all in terms of his character he has shown recently his desire to stay, and those are signals that raise him in terms of personality.
“He wants to be there in every way, it matters to him. Today he trained only partially, but when he was coming off he came over to me and said: ‘I’m here, I’m fine.’ I want to tell that story to show the strength of this lad.”
Criticism, Responsibility and the Goalkeeper Debate
Spalletti then addressed the subject of criticism surrounding the team and, in particular, the goalkeeping situation, speaking in typically reflective terms.
“We need to develop the ability to accept being looked down on, so that we do not depend on the looks of others and can be free,” he said. “It all starts from there: you stop asking yourself what will happen and start thinking about what you want to make happen.
“As a group, we don’t throw the opinions and criticisms of others to the wolves. We divide everything into equal parts. All the insults and all the criticism, everyone takes a share. There’s a common piggy bank outside the dressing room where we throw in the good things and the bad things, because that way the weight becomes easier to carry. You can see it in the way the players joke with the one who is most under fire at that moment.
“The way of thinking has to be: ‘I must not let him shoot, I must not lose that ball.’ We all go back through the action and take our share of responsibility for what happened. Before the shot on goal, there were two or three other situations.”
When asked directly about choosing between Di Gregorio and Perin, Spalletti stayed pragmatic.
“We try to think of everything in order to put everyone under as little pressure as possible,” he said. “Then we make a decision, hoping it is the right one.”
“Two Big Threats, Two Big Challenges”
Attention turned to the upcoming fixtures, with Juventus facing both Galatasaray in Europe and a crucial league clash soon after. Spalletti was clear that both games weigh heavily, but also offer opportunity.
“Both matches weigh the same, they are both big threats, but equally they are big challenges,” he explained. “Every night when I go to bed, before I fall asleep, I say goodbye to the day I’ve just lived – the past – and I start thinking about what I have to do the next day, because that is what takes me into the future.
“There are days that force you to feel bad, but from those days I build something that I will enjoy living, that will make me happy and make me feel good. Now we think about this match. It is a difficult challenge, but together with our fans – and I am convinced they will be involved – we will try to do everything. As they say: until the end of the match, we will try to do everything.”
“We Must Be a Deeper, Stronger Version of Ourselves”
Spalletti insisted that Juventus cannot abandon their identity in search of a miracle, but instead must rediscover their true level and strengthen their core principles.
“We must not become something different,” he said. “We must be a deeper and more solid version of ourselves than what we have shown recently. We have to remain a team, even though it would be easier to become 11 individuals – but we will not make that mistake.
“We know the value of our squad. We need compactness, unity, and a deep understanding of what being a team really means if we are to overturn matches like this.
“What we are right now does not really resemble who we are, or what we have shown ourselves to be. Statistics sometimes are a clue, not a judgement. Whoever uses them as something final is using them badly, because you only do the sums at the end.
“For me, it is fundamental that we remember who we are and that we always call on ourselves and on the help of our fans tomorrow night. We must not think that we need three goals; we must think that we need one goal, because then the scenarios change, everything changes and everything feeds on itself and becomes more involved.
“We spoke about it this morning, after the bad game against Como that we deserved to lose – in the sense that Como deserved to win it – and that is the only match where you can really say something to these lads. For the others, we could talk until tonight.”
Bremer, Kostić and the Squad
On the fitness and selection front, Spalletti confirmed positive news regarding Bremer and hinted at a bigger role for Filip Kostić.
“Bremer will be called up and he can be used in the match,” he said. “He is made of that same substance – he is ‘bianconero material’ too.”
On Kostić, Spalletti was honest about his previous choices.
“He could be an option,” he admitted. “I haven’t given him much playing time and I’m sorry about that. Sometimes you find yourself having to make certain choices and there are factors that influence those decisions.
“He has value as a man and as a professional, in terms of belonging to these colours and this club. He has a hammer of a left foot, and we are in a contest between his left foot and my right foot to see who can use this ‘club’ better. Sooner or later, because of the difficulties on the flanks, he will be put in a position to show his quality.”
“The Difficulties Don’t Take Away Your Value”
Looking at the broader picture and the psychological impact of recent defeats, Spalletti underlined that setbacks should not distort Juventus’ sense of self-worth.
“Whether we complete a comeback or not depends a lot on these results, because unconsciously you are forced to suffer them a bit and they stick to you,” he said. “We have gone through all the right reflections, and we are in a condition to play this match at our best.
“We have reset, we took a recovery day, which you need every now and then. Difficulties do not take away your value – they force you to use it. The future comes after this match and this result.”
“We Have Few Chances, But We Want to Play Them All”
Asked whether the players truly believe in a comeback, Spalletti responded by stressing authenticity, memory and the importance of the path that brought Juventus to this stage.
“You cannot invent something from nothing and suddenly become something different,” he said. “Sometimes people are tempted to do that, but the way out is always to be ourselves to the very end.
“I show the players what they have done up to this moment, because as we said earlier, you cannot always please everyone, but in my mind I decide how much space to give to this or that thing. You have to be credible when you try to provoke a moment of awareness.
“For me it’s easy to go back and show them, or to revisit mentally, the moments we have experienced together – it’s a little game you can always play. There is a very bad period, but there is also a beautiful period that made us think of even better outcomes, and then some steps back were taken because of certain episodes.
“Football often has low-scoring matches and is frequently influenced by episodes. As far as I am concerned, Cagliari and Lecce also count in the statistics. I have to coach the possibility of creating as many favourable episodes as possible. That is what I have to coach, and that is what we have done. Even in matches without a result, we behaved as we should have – and that is the truth.
“That is what must make us feel more confident and calmer. We have few chances, but we want to play them all to the very end, and I am convinced that the players, together with the stadium, will show that. We have shown that we can score two or three goals or create chances for big results, then of course the opponent is a difficult customer.”
“Tomorrow Is Not a Dream – It Is Something We Earned”
Spalletti closed with a powerful reflection on what this tie represents for Juventus and why his players must treat it as a reward for their work rather than a fantasy.
“How do you come back from this? You go and show them what they have already done,” he said. “You use the whole journey to highlight that we are not just the team shown by what is happening now – we are also the team from a month ago.
“Tomorrow we will not be living a dream; we will be living a situation that we have earned. We must remember all the effort that went into reaching this level. No one simply said: ‘Go and play for Juventus.’
“Tomorrow is a reward – something we have earned to be at this level – and we must go out and play it on the pitch.”
With that, Spalletti set the tone for a night in Turin that will demand courage, clarity and belief. Whether Juventus can complete the comeback remains to be seen, but their coach has made one thing clear: they will approach the challenge determined to be fully themselves, together with their fans, “until the end”.
