No complaints from Juve´s Delneri

Despite the hard yards put in by 10-man Juventus on Sunday, Luigi Delneri refused to complain about Chievo’s late equaliser.

Fabio Quagliarella put Juve ahead in the 31st minute, but had to fight a rearguard action for most of the second half after Manuel Giandonato received his marching orders on 52 minutes at the Stadio Marc`Antonio Bentegodi.

Chievo’s pressure eventually told and they earned a point through Sergio Pellissier’s equaliser moments before the final whistle.

After his team won with two late goals against Lazio earlier this month, Delneri admitted that perhaps Juve were owed a measure of payback.

“We hit the woodwork twice and played with 10 men for over 45 minutes,” Delneri said.

“The team did its duty, then conceded in stoppage time when we thought the victory was safe. Last week we played that trick on Lazio, this time it was our go.”

“We accept the point and go home with a relaxed state of mind. We made up for the absentees with hard work and in my view deserved more.”

“It is a very open league and we have our chances. It can even be said this point was precious considering we played with 10 men and were missing so many important players.”

“On the one hand, these games leave a bitter taste in the mouth, but on the other we always need this character and determination.”

Chievo coach Stefano Pioli feared the worse when Michele Marcolini missed a 16th-minute penalty, but the team dug deep and were eventually rewarded with a point at the expense of one of the title contenders.

“We are always motivated against the big boys,” Pioli said.

“If we had lost today it would have been an injustice. My boys kept plugging away at the visitors and got what they deserved with Pellissier’s late goal.”

“Coming off the back of two defeats we were keen to show that we could bounce back. Given Juventus had the chance to close the gap at the top it wasn’t easy to stop such a determined side but we did that.”

“The side played in a positive manner and it paid dividends today. It would have been easy to drop our heads following the early penalty miss, but we kept plugging away and are delighted with the point.”