Italy head coach Giampiero Ventura says Juventus have plenty to be proud of this season despite their Champions League final defeat on Saturday.
Massimiliano Allegri s side were beaten 4-1 by Real Madrid in Cardiff, making it two final defeats in three seasons and five in a row stretching back to 1997.
It also meant that Juve narrowly missed out on replicating the treble won by Inter in 2010, with the Old Lady having already claimed a domestic double of Serie A and Coppa Italia triumphs this year.
Club president Andrea Agnelli told his players they should be proud of their season and Ventura expects them to bounce back from their loss and challenge for the trophy again next season.
I don t think Italian football looks any less impressive, he told a media conference.
The fact that they reached the final unbeaten, conceding only three goals, was amazing and 90 minutes cannot cancel out an entire season.
They lost the game and have to accept that. I saw the comments from president Andrea Agnelli and I agree with him: it was an extraordinary year and they only missed the icing on the cake.
In a way, losing the final creates a sort of determination that will help them try to win the trophy again. Great champions always give a great response.
Proud of every single one of you.
— JuventusFC (@juventusfcen)
Gianluigi Buffon, Andrea Barzagli, Leonardo Bonucci, Giorgio Chiellini and Claudio Marchisio will now link up with the Italy squad for next Wednesday s friendly match against Uruguay.
I don t know what I ll say to them, but there s no problem, said Ventura. I expect them to arrive in good shape and to be fired up.
There were worrisome scenes in Turin late on Saturday after a stampede in a packed fan zone in the Piazza San Carlo, with the latest reports suggesting that more than 1500 people have been injured and a four-year-old child said to be in a critical condition.
Local media reports claimed that spectators became panicked when a firecracker exploded, prompting fears of a bomb attack, while it has also been said that a railing around the entrance to an underground car park gave way.
Hours later, seven people were killed and 48 injured in London when terrorists drove a van through pedestrians before attacking civilians with knives.
We re close to the family of that poor child and all those injured in Piazza San Carlo, Ventura said. What happened is as a result of this moment in history. A firework can seem like a bomb, a bomb seems like a terrorist attack, and therefore catastrophe.
The world is going through a difficult time, as we saw last night in London.
