Two of Italy’s biggest clubs were in action in the Europa League on Thursday evening, with no shortage of headlines involving Portuguese as both sides recorded victories.
Juventus came from behind in Spain to win 2-1 at Celta Vigo, in a match notable for Chico Conceição’s angry reaction to being substituted and subsequent comments by manager Lucaino Spalletti. Meanwhile, Ruben Amorim’s AC Milan stormed to an impressive 4-0 victory at Austria’s Salzburg, with Gonçalo Ramos on the scoresheet.
Juventus trailed Celta 1-0 at the break, but recovered to win thanks to goals from Nick Woltemade and Randal Kolo Muani, who snatched a stoppage-time winner. Portugal winger Chico Conceição was withdrawn on 64 minutes with the score level at 1-1, after which the former Porto man angrily headed straight to the dressing room, reportedly punching the substitutes’ bench as he left.
Asked about the reaction of Conceição to being subbed, Juventus manager Luciano Spalletti with forthright with his response. “It would do him well to be angry with himself, because otherwise we can talk about it later,” Spalletti said.
“If he has something to say, I think it is against himself for his performance. Besides, he went off at the 70th minute, there is another match coming up in a few days. If he had this attitude, and my staff tell me he didn’t, then he’ll explain to us what he thinks and we’ll try to sort it out.”
Conceição quickly addressed the situation, clarifying that his frustration did not spill over into any arguments with staff. “I want to clarify that I did not argue with anyone,” Conceicao told Sky Sport Italia.
“I went off, I hit the area of the bench where I sit down, but I did not have any dialogue with a member of staff. I went into the dressing room to change my shirt, go to the bathroom, and came back out after a few minutes.
“I want that to be clear, because I don’t want any untrue things to be said.”
Ramos scores as Milan ease to victory
In more positive news, Gonçalo Ramos came off the bench to score a much-needed goal in Milan’s 4-0 win over Salzburg in Austria. Ramos has struggled to find the net since his move to Italy, but emerged to take advantage of malaise in the Salzburg backline and finish clinically on his left foot to round off the scoring.
For boss Ruben Amorin, most of the attention fell on another attacker during the post-match media duties. Teenage striker Alphadjo Cisse became the youngest Italian to score a hat-trick in European competition, repaying trust Amorim has shown in him this season.
“He doesn’t owe anything to me, he deserves the chances he’s getting because of what he’s doing on his own,” said Amorim. “He knows how to be explosive. He has a lot of heart, but he can do better in training and in games as well. All the congratulations go to him tonight, but he has a lot of potential and things to improve.
“Why has it taken so long for us to play this well? I don’t agree. We’ve played better as a team in other games. If they had been more accurate, there were five situations where they could have hurt us.
“We’ve had more control in other games, but today we managed to score goals. We’ve played better in other games, but we focus too much on the result. There are things to improve, but it was a nice evening.”
