Muric: ‘Felt confident I could save Juventus penalty’
Arijanet Muric reveals he felt ‘confident’ facing the Manuel Locatelli penalty and there was a ‘much more difficult’ save to earn Sassuolo the 1-1 draw with Juventus.
It was a dramatic evening in Turin, partly for the build-up because Sassuolo were missing four injured players, plus Nemanja Matic, Kristian Thorstvedt, Woyo Coulibaly and Stefano Turati who were left behind after showing symptoms of whooping cough.
The highly-infectious disease of the respiratory system swept through the squad and made it an extraordinarily difficult situation to deal with.
Nonetheless, they came back from the Kenan Yildiz strike with Andrea Pinamonti, then late on Muric smothered the Locatelli spot-kick.
Muric and Sassuolo snatched result
“I think the team did very well, it’s all about energy, we had it spot on today, created a lot of chances as well, so I think we deserved to go home with a point,” Muric told Sky Sport Italia.
Juventus have now failed to convert three consecutive Serie A penalties, after Kenan Yildiz and Jonathan David errors, so what was Muric thinking when Locatelli stepped up?
“It was about a feeling, the moment he kicked it, I thought I’m going to save it. I was feeling confident. The header from Milik was much more difficult, but I managed to keep that out too, so it’s a great day.”
Sassuolo captain Domenico Berardi also congratulated Muric on his Serie A Man of the Match status.
“Aro has been giving us a big hand for a while now, he’s got great qualities and has been impressing for some time,” Berardi told Sky Sport Italia.
“We came here to have our say against a great opponent. Juventus are doing really well, but we managed to stay in the game after going behind, played with sacrifice, but also quality and good passing. We are happy to go home with a result.”