Giuntoli: ‘Juventus want to continue with Kolo Muani’ in future | OneFootball

Juventus director Cristiano Giuntoli confirms they are working with PSG to ‘continue’ with Randal Kolo Muani next season, while explaining the Lloyd Kelly and Renato Veiga choices.

The Champions League play-off with PSV Eindhoven kicks off at the Allianz Juventus Stadium in Turin at 20.00 GMT.

You can follow all the build-up and action as it happens on the Liveblog.

This is the first leg of the play-off, with the return in Eindhoven on February 19, and the winners go on to face either Inter or Arsenal in the Round of 16.

These sides already met in the opening league phase fixture in September, with Juve winning 3-1, but they are starting three January signings tonight who weren’t part of the squad at that time.

“We needed to cover some gaps created by injuries, so we had to intervene in defence with three players and with Milik hurt we turned to Kolo Muani too,” Giuntoli told Sky Sport Italia.

“We hope to have a great game and get some consistency in our recent results.”

Kolo Muani scored five goals in just three Serie A games since his loan move from Paris Saint-Germain, but are Juventus also hoping to find a way to make the move either permanent or at least extend the loan for next season?

“We have a good rapport between the clubs and when the transfer window was shut, we already saw that Milik might not be ready in time, so we worked behind the scenes at that time to lay the groundwork and got ahead of the many contenders,” added Giuntoli.

“The agreement we reached with them also created a way of figuring out how we could continue with him in future.”

Juventus revamped defence in January

Lloyd Kelly Juventus Cristiano Giuntoli

Renato Veiga arrived on loan from Chelsea, while Lloyd Kelly was a permanent purchase from Newcastle United, so why did Juve choose them after looking at so many alternatives?

“Cabal and Cambiaso were our only left-footed players, so we needed to bring in at least one and ended up getting two. They are important playing out from the back, but also versatile, as Kelly can play in central defence or left-back, while Veiga can also play in midfield. We considered them the right choices.”

Teun Koopmeiners was the most expensive summer signing from Atalanta at over €50m, but he is on the bench this evening, so what isn’t gelling for him at Juventus?

“He worked really hard during the first half of the season, he didn’t have pre-season training with us and had an injury too. He does the hard work for the team, is perhaps missing some of his usual sparkling moments of skill, but we are sure they will come. He is just having a rest, as he gave so much.”

This is the youngest starting XI that Juventus have ever fielded in a knockout phase Champions League fixture, aged 25 years and 172 days.