In Serie A, it's not been the best or worst of starts so far this season for Juventus, as they currently sit in sixth place in the table after three wins, two draws, and one loss.
Despite having lost only once, they'll still want to keep pace with the likes of Inter, Lazio, and AS Roma at the top of the table and prevent the five-point gap to first-placed Inter from growing.
In the Europa League, Juventus made it two wins from two after they came from 1-0 down at Celta Vigo to win 2-1 thanks to a stoppage time winner from Randal Kolo Muani.
The Frenchman's late winner added to Nick Woltemade's 58th-minute equalizer after Celta Vigo had gone 1-0 inside the opening twenty minutes through Hugo Alvarez.
The win at Estadio de Balaídos sees Juventus move into first place in the Europa League table after two matchdays. They have the joint-best goal difference alongside Bayer Leverkusen but have scored one more goal (seven) than Die Werkself. The 5-0 matchday one win over Dutch side NEC Nijmegen helped get their goal difference off to a strong start.
Juventus’ Celta Vigo Win Followed Conceicao’s Substitution Frustration
While Luciano Spalletti will have been delighted to have come away with three points at Celta Vigo, the win didn't come without a brief spell of drama midway through the second half for the Vecchia Signora.
In the 64th minute, Spalletti decided to take off Francisco Conceição and replace him with Nico González to give Juventus a different option on the wing, but the Portuguese attacker did not take kindly to being substituted.
As reported by Gazzetta dello Sport, the Portuguese winger struck the bench in frustration and subsequently appeared to exchange words with a member of Spalletti's coaching staff.
Reports also suggested he stormed down the tunnel shortly thereafter, but the 23-year-old has come out and cleared the air after the match.
Conceicao Explains His Reaction to Being Substituted
Despite the reports, Conceicao said there had been no verbal altercation between himself and anyone on the Juventus coaching staff.
Optics might have painted a bit of a grim picture at the time, but he simply said he was frustrated to come off, hit the bench, went in to change kits, and came back out.
"I want to clarify that I did not argue with anyone. I went off, I hit the area of the bench where I sit down, but I did not have any dialogue with a member of staff. I went into the dressing room to change my shirt, go to the bathroom, and came back out after a few minutes. I want that to be clear, because I don’t want any untrue things to be said," the young winger explained to Sky Sport Italia.
Of course, more could have been made of what happened in the immediate aftermath without knowing all of the details, but Spalletti added that Conceicao might've have been more frustrated with his own performance than he was to have been subbed off.
"It would do him well to be angry with himself, because otherwise we can talk about it later," Spalletti said.
"If he has something to say, I think it is against himself for his performance. Besides, he went off at the 70th minute, there is another match coming up in a few days. If he had this attitude, and my staff tell me he didn’t, then he’ll explain to us what he thinks and we’ll try to sort it out," the Juventus boss continued.
For now, they can consider the beef squashed and chalk things up to a spell of fiery passion for a player that's shown Juventus what he can do on his day.
