Juventus defender Danilo stated in an interview with Marca that the philosophy of his current manager Andrea Pirlo is comparable to Pep Guardiola’s one, who coached him at Manchester City. “I like to participate to the build-up, Pirlo gives me a lot of freedom to charge forward with the ball. Guardiola had very similar ideas. They focus on occupying the spaces and they analyze how to anticipate the movements of the opponents. He is gaining experience, but he has had a very clear strategy since day-one. That is an important element and the squad is fully behind him.”
The versatile Danilo commented his bounce-back season: “It is my best campaign over the last few years, I did not have much continuity before. I just needed to play regular minutes, I am happy now. I have no problems switching scheme and position.”
He concluded on the team’s ambitions: “They always ask us if we want to win Champions League, but there are several players that have been at Juventus for just one or two seasons. Not everybody has been part of the full nine-year run. It is a magical competition and we want to take it home, but also Serie A and Coppa Italia are important.”
The site Calcio e Finanza revealed that advancing past Porto would allow Juventus to earn €10M. It would bring the earnings coming from Champions League to at least €77.9M, plus the income generated by the market pool that is uncertain yet as its quota was tweaked compared to previous years.