Giorgio Chiellini won’t carry a grudge into his highly touted reunion with Luis Suarez.
Chiellini, the victim of Suarez’s infamous bite at the 2014 FIFA World Cup, said at a press conference Tuesday he has “no hard feelings” towards the Uruguayan, according to Sky Sports. Chiellini and Suarez likely will face off when Juventus meets Barcelona in the UEFA Champions Final on June 6 in Berlin. The showcase game will be the first time Chiellini and Suarez have met since last summer’s Italy-Uruguay World Cup game, but the Italian defender won’t make any special preparations for the Uruguayan star.
“It’s been less than a week that we have won with Real Madrid and and I’ve been asked only about Suarez,” Chiellini told reporters. “I have no problem, I don’t need to hear from him, I have no hard feelings.
“I will mark him like I have marked (Karim) Benzema, I will mark (Lionel) Messi like I did with (Cristiano) Ronaldo and Neymar like I did with (Gareth) Bale.”
Chiellini rarely has spoken about the moment when Suarez sank his teeth into his shoulder. The incident shocked a global audience, much of which still remembers the bite as if it happened last week. Chiellini stopped worrying about Suarez’s bite long ago and now only is focused on Juventus’ next game — the Coppa Italia (Italian Cup) final against Lazio on Wednesday.
“It happened, he was sent off, they won and I lost, so in the end the only thing I was really sorry about was being out of the World Cup,” Chiellini said. “So first let me think about (Wednesday’s) game, then we’ll have all the time we need to think about Barcelona.”
