Chiellini dreaming of home final

Giorgio Chiellini and Juventus are dreaming of the UEFA Europa League final in their own stadium after a quarter-final victory over Lyon.

After their 1-0 first-leg win in France the Serie A leaders secured their progression to the semi-finals with a 2-1 victory in the Juventus Stadium on Thursday.They join Benfica, Sevilla and Valencia in the last four and Chiellini admits reaching next month’s final, which is being held in Turin, continues to motivate them.

“We are very satisfied,” the Juventus defender told Sky Sport Italia.

“(But) the only thing that interests me is coming back here in May for the final.

“We want to play the final on our turf, as it’s something that might never happen again in the history of this club.

“It’s too important to miss out on.”

Andrea Pirlo’s fourth minute free-kick put Juventus on their way to victory, and although Jimmy Briand levelled soon after, the Italian champions secured their progression thanks to Claudio Marchisio’s deflected second-half strike.

Chiellini admitted Juventus could have played better but felt over the 180 minutes they rightly booked a place in the last four.

“At times people take Juventus success for granted but we saw that over two legs Lyon played to the death, man-marked us for 180 minutes and it becomes difficult to score in those circumstances,” the 29-year-old said.

“We did well to take our chances, though perhaps lost some sharpness during the second period of the first half. That came back after the break and I thought we deserved qualification.”