Juventus striker Alvaro Morata scored the most important goal of his entire career this week, netting the equalising against his former club Real Madrid in the Champions League semi-final second leg to send the Italian giants into the final for the first time in 12 years.
“It (was) a bittersweet feeling (scoring past a former side). Here (Santiago Bernabeu) and in Turin I came on to the pitch thinking that it was a training session (with my old team-mates) and I had to stop and focus. It was quite hard not to celebrate the goal. It was a weird feeling. But I would react the same again a thousand times. I would have liked to have scored against another team but that’s life,” he said in the aftermath of the match.
Morata, 22, joined from Real last summer, but has now become a hero with the Bianconeri supporters due to his European antics. The Spanish international has made the majority of his league appearances from the bench, with Carlos Tevez and Fernando Llorente ahead of him in the pecking order, but started to prove his worth as the season went on dispatching Llorente to the bench.
He spent six years with Real Madrid, signing as a youth player from Getafe in 2008, and went on to make 51 appearances for Los Blancos, scoring nine goals. Morata has already bettered that tally with Juve in one season, and could well be a long-term replacement for the likes of Tevez in the future.
The young striker had to be patient for his opportunity, but has really come to life in Europe, scoring four goals in his last six Champions League games. He has seven goals in nine Serie A starts this season, and has been lauded by his manager Massimiliano Allegri for an impressive debut campaign.
“Morata is becoming a very important player, he has grown physically. He is a young lad who grew up at Madrid with many champions by his side. He started from the bench at Juventus but has grown a lot and I think there is still room for improvement,” he said.
Juventus paid around £17M for his services last summer, so they knew Morata was more than just a potential talent. However, it can be hard for a young player to adjust to a new city and a different league, so Juve still showed tremendous faith to fork out a decent sum for Morata. Such risk has since proven vindicated, and given Allegri’s recent glowing praise of the striker, will Morata forge a long and successful relationship with teammates and fans in Turin?
