23 November 2015
The potential permutations that could lead to the Bianconeri reaching the last 16 of this season’s Champions League tomorrow night are numerous, but Giorgio Chiellini is eager not to depend on Group D’s other game of the evening between Borussia Monchengladbach and Sevilla.
While Manchester City’s progress to the knockout stages was already confirmed after beating the Spaniards on Matchday 4, top spot is still up for grabs and Chiellini is expecting a strong response from the English club following Saturday’s 4-1 home loss to Liverpool.
Speaking to Sky and Mediaset, the defender began: “Having already qualified from the group, we might have come up against a more relaxed City side, but instead they’ll be keen to react immediately to last weekend’s defeat.
“Therefore we’ll have to be at our best and we want to reach the knockout stages ourselves this Wednesday.”
The Bianconeri enter the encounter on the back of three successive Serie A victories after seeing off the Rossoneri on Saturday evening.
Despite the recent upturn in fortunes that has seen his side rise to within seven points of the top of the table, Chiellini stressed that any talk of challenging for a fifth consecutive league title is premature.
“We played well against Milan, defending strongly as a unit and allowing their frontmen very little space. Even if it wasn’t our best performance of the season, we showed the right attitude and strength of character.
“I don’t think that we can talk about the Scudetto in our current position, we need to take each game at a time. We’ve made up ground on our rivals in these last three matches. It’s very important that we play with consistency from here on until Christmas.”
With the interview approaching its end, the 28-year-old was asked to draw comparisons between Paulo Dybala and ex-Bianconero and fellow Argentine Carlos Tevez.
“In my opinion the only thing they have in common is their nationality. Paulo has a stronger shot on him from distance, even if Carlos scored a couple of long-range crackers for us.
“They are very different players. Whereas Carlos benefitted from immense mental and physical strength, Paulo is developing into a very fine player on a technical level and is adding on the muscle in training. He should be left to mature in this way without too much pressure.”
