Wojciech Szczesny, the Juventus goalkeeper described himself as “scared” after exiting the first leg of his team’s Europa League quarterfinal match against Sporting due to chest trouble.
Prior to the end of the first half, the Polish international left the pitch in tears. Mattia Perin was then brought in to finish the game at Allianz Stadium, which ended in a 1-0 victory.
Szczesny was checked by the medical team and given the all clear shortly after the resumption of the second half, though he admitted he was concerned by the sequence of events.
He told Sky Sport Italia:”I am fine, I was a little anxious, but we did all the tests and everything is fine.
“I was scared, it had never happened to me before, I was struggling to breathe and it really worried me.”
Perin’s heroics in added time with a double save to deny Pote and Hector Bellerin secured victory for Juventus, with Szczesny returning to form by joking about the situation and praising his team-mate.
After an initial check, Tek is doing well 💪 pic.twitter.com/rKbzJLQ2zC
— JuventusFC 🇬🇧🇺🇸 (@juventusfcen) April 13, 2023
He added: “The truth is, I saw Mattia in great shape in training, I felt tired and knew he would have a great double save at the 94th [minute].
“Nah, they fired it straight at him! I congratulated him, he is also a guy with a heart of gold, we get along well. It’s a shame Carlo [Pinsoglio] didn’t come on, he would’ve had a hat-trick of great saves today.”
Speaking shortly after, Perin hailed the team’s display and made it clear there was still plenty of work to be done.
He said: “I think the team as a whole has been exceptional not to fall into a victim mentality or false alibis, instead we used that negative energy and made it positive, proving we are real men.
“It is only half-time in the quarter-final, there are another 90 minutes to go and we can be happy with this victory, but it’s only half-done.”