Thiago Motta: ‘Juventus wanted to prove superiority in Leipzig’ | OneFootball

Thiago Motta praised 10-man Juventus for the comeback victory away to RB Leipzig. ‘Negative incidents happen, but the important thing is how you react to them. We wanted to prove our superiority on the field.’

It was truly an eventful match in Leipzig, as Gleison Bremer and Nico Gonzalez went off injured in the opening 11 minutes, then RB Leipzig were leading 2-1 when Michele Di Gregorio was sent off for handling outside the box on the hour mark.

“We still need to understand what happened with Bremer and Nico, they need tests and hope the problems are not too serious, but it’s too early to say.”

On the resulting free kick, Douglas Luiz’s handball gave away a penalty with his first touch, but down to 10 men the Bianconeri still turned it around with Dusan Vlahovic completing his brace and the Francisco Conceicao solo effort.

“We played well in the first half too, even if there were a few technical errors, but we did even better when going down to 10 men,” Thiago Motta told Amazon Prime Video Italia and Sky Sport Italia.

“I think the difference in the second half was that we had more belief and wanted to prove our superiority on the pitch. The first half was good, but in the second we needed to prove that we were superior to our opponents and therefore deserved the victory.”

Thiago Motta gives credit to Juventus for keeping the faith

When they were at 2-2 and still down to 10, the coach urged his men on the touchline to keep pushing and made only positive substitutions, so that gave them courage.

“The courage was shown by my players, not by me, so they deserve the credit. The team gave the feeling it genuinely believed in what we had talked about before the match,” continued Motta.

“These players wear the jersey of an important club, so this is the mentality they ought to have. The lads showed their pride and determination, for all the staff who work with them, all the fans who were here tonight and who watched at home. We have to transmit that desire, commitment and determination.

“I am glad for the team, because it was a difficult match with some negative situations, but we reacted to those very well.”

The goal celebrations got a bit over the top on the touchline, as Thiago Motta revealed he accidentally got whacked in the forehead by Federico Gatti’s elbow.

Douglas Luiz continues to struggle at Juventus and giving away a penalty with his first touch will not help his confidence.

“Negative incidents happen in games, they were truly very negative today, but the important thing is how you react to them. We kept our heads high, showed the right attitude and these are the foundations you need for a team at this level. We proved with this attitude we could overturn a very, very complicated game.”

Juventus now have six points from two Champions League games under Motta, having beaten PSV Eindhoven 3-1 and now RB Leipzig 3-2 at the Red Bull Arena.

“It was the way we interpreted the game today against a strong opponent that has enthusiasm, young players who want to attack, so to compete with them we knew that the first press was important,” added Thiago Motta.

“At times they beat it and were dangerous, in other times we tried to clam up and not let their wingers get behind our full-backs, but for the most part we tried to play the ball and cause them problems to bring home a positive result.

“With so many negatives that happened on the pitch, the best response was to be so positive, to fight back and keep going.”