Juventus winger Kwadwo Asamoah said he was pleasantly surprised by the standard of the opposition in tonight’s International Champions Cup opener.
A young Juventus side went down 4-3 on penalties to the Melbourne Victory, after Carlos Blanco’s incredible strike was cancelled out by a late Jai Ingham equaliser.
One of a few players with senior experience, Asamoah said the quality of the Victory was surprising and made for an enjoyable match.
“I wasn’t expecting such a good game from them so I was surprised, and it was a good experience playing against them,” Asamoah said.
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The crowd created cause for concern, with only 23,174 people fronting up for the clash between the Italian champions and Australia’s biggest club.
However, after coming under fire 12 months ago for the state of the ground, Asamoah said he and his teammates were pleased with the opportunity to play on the MCG.
“I love the stadium, it’s a nice pitch and talking about the team we played against it was amazing,” Asamoah said.
With new signings Mehdi Benatia and Miralem Pjanic unused subs on the bench, Asamoah said the match’s priority was exposing the youngsters as opposed to the result.
“The positive signs were we had a very good game – honestly, the result wasn’t particularly important for us,” Asamoah said.
“We had a lot of young players among us and they did so well… I’m hoping they’ll continue to learn because they’re still young players and I think they’re going to be great players one day.”
Asamoah saved a special mention for Blanco’s second-half goal, describing it as a strike which “are scored by world class players”.
“For a young player to score a guy like that, you can see he’s very talented and going to be very good for us.”
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