No 16 hours after the champions league k.O. From juventus turin and superstar cristiano ronaldo the culprit was found – and a little later already the new hope carrier.
Following the release of maurizio sarri, former world champion and soccer legend andrea pirlo takes over as the new coach of the italian champions. Thus the club drew the consequences from the disappointing performance in the konigsklasse. Juventus was eliminated by the 2-1 against olympique lyon on friday in the eighth finals, after the first leg was lost 0:1.
The 41-year-old pirlo signed a two-year contract until 30. June 2022 and will take his first coaching job with ronaldo’s team. Originally it had been planned that the world champion of 2006 should coach the U23 of juve to the coming season.
Italian media had previously speculated that ex-world footballer zinedine zidane was the number one candidate to succeed the failed sarri. The french star coach had also failed in the eighth finals at the same time as record winners real madrid, losing 1:2 at manchester city, and had to listen to criticism in spain.
But there will be no change on the coaching benches of the european heavyweights. In addition to zidane, ex-tottenham coach mauricio pochettino and lazio coach simone inzaghi had also been traded at juve. But now comes pirlo, who played for juve from 2011 to 2015 and won a total of four italian championship titles with the tournaments.
The words of club boss andrea agnelli directly after the game already meant nothing good for sarri. "We are now taking a day or two to make the right decisions for the future," agnelli said. In the end, the coach’s departure was only a matter of hours. Winning the ninth championship didn’t pay anything, it was just the obligatory program so to speak. This was already sarris vorganger massimiliano allegri last year to the verhangnis.
The order is clear, only the champions league title pays at juve. For that the italians have cristiano ronaldo two years ago for about 100 million euros of real madrid fetched. But ronaldo alone can’t fix it either. While the portuguese had averted an eighth-final exit with a three-goal haul against atletico madrid last year, his two goals against lyon were not enough this time.
At least ronaldo is still highly rated by juve. Recently, there had been rumors that he was considering leaving turin. "I am convinced that he will stay," replied agnelli. "He is a cornerstone of our team."
For the time being, ronaldo will have to wait for his sixth triumph in the european royal class. The 35-year-old had celebrated the last three of these in madrid under coach zidane, who for the first time ever had a.O.-duel with real as coach lost. That brought him immediate criticism. "Zizou" was never a strategic genius, we know that, he said on a tv talk show after the bankruptcy. But the fact that he had done practically nothing from the bench in manchester to bring about a turnaround was "unforgivable".
Forgotten is apparently the first championship title for real since 2017, which was made perfect with a super run after the corona mandatory break. But against city the starting position was already bad after the 1:2 in the first leg. Two mistakes by french world champion raphael varane gave real the rest in manchester. "We can still be proud of what we have achieved. 95 percent of the season was excellent," said zidane and added with a view to his personal future: "I’m coach of real, as long as something extraordinary doesn’t happen."
Some top clubs will be missing from the final tournament in lisbon. Defending champions FC liverpool had already been eliminated before the corona break against atletico madrid, and now the champions from spain and italy also followed suit. Ex-world champion toni kroos doesn’t want to see any more of the tournament after real’s elimination. "I honestly don’t think i’ll watch the rest," he revealed. "When i go on vacation, i go on vacation, and then also without fubball."