Montero inspired by Juventus show of ‘pride’ on debut | OneFootball

Paolo Montero highlights the Juventus ‘pride’ to fight back from 3-0 down to hold Bologna 3-3 in what was a thrilling debut for the interim coach.

It was certainly not a boring debut in Serie A for the Uruguayan, who was promoted from the Under-19 team for the final two Serie A games of the season because Max Allegri was fired for his behaviour in the Coppa Italia Final win over Atalanta.

His players were 2-0 down after 11 minutes at the Stadio Dall’Ara and trailing 3-0 by the 53rd to a Riccardo Calafiori brace and Santiago Castro header.

However, they staged a remarkable comeback sparked by Montero’s substitutions, particularly Kenan Yildiz for defender Fabio Gatti.

In the space of eight minutes, Federico Chiesa, Arkadiusz Milik and Kenan Yildiz completed the comeback for 3-3.

“In my view, the draw is the fair result. The victory on Wednesday was important, mentally it drained them a little bit and to come here against one of the best teams at the moment like Bologna, you are going to struggle,” Montero told DAZN.

“After that dip in mentality, they fought back with pride and showed how much they care about the shirt.”

Juventus called on Montero

Montero spent much of his playing career at Juventus and that bond to the club showed with his wild celebration at the equaliser, running down the touchline in the pouring rain.

“It is a special situation for me. I don’t know how to describe it, but the lads gave me this joy. I have been here for two days, they gave me a lovely welcome. When you are in important locker rooms, to achieve certain victories, you need great men in there and I think Juve have great men in this team.

“I found a team with a good spirit. I don’t feel like I can give an opinion on what happened before I got here, as I was not here.”

There was also a long hug on the touchline at the final whistle with Bologna coach Thiago Motta, so what did they say to each other in that moment?

“I congratulated him on his season. We also had 45 days together at Coverciano, I got to know him there, we went to dinner every day and talked about football. His team plays really good football, he’s a great guy and deserves all this success.”

Montero and Thiago Motta were both taking their coaching badges at the same time at the Coverciano ground, where all Italian tacticians must study and complete the process before being able to lead a Serie A side.