Juventus youngster Moise Kean racially abused in win over Cagilari, Leonardo Bonucci accuses him of provoking fans

Juventus forward Moise Kean suffered racial abuse from the stands as the Serie A leaders cruised to a 2-0 victory over Cagliari but, was accused by team-mate Leonardo Bonucci of provoking the fans after Kean scored his goal.

The youngester was abused all game by a section of the home support, with monkey chants aimed at the Italian international.

Kean took a stance of defiance when he scored his second goal to respond to the chants in the stands.

Juventus players, led by skipper Giorgio Chiellini, raced and protested to the referee over the abuse and chants aimed at the youngster.

Cagliari skipper Luca Ceppitelli went over to the fans behind the goal, appealing for the chants to stop, while France midfielder Blaise Matuidi appeared to gesture to manager Massimiliano Allegri he should take his players off.

Kean’s goal added to a towering header scored by defender Leonardo Bonucci to secure three points for Juventus. Later on, in an interview the Italian defender decided to criticise the teenager for provoking the fans. He said:

“Kean knows that when he scores a goal, he has to focus on celebrating with his teammates. He knows he could’ve done something differently too.

“There were racist jeers after the goal, Blaise heard it and was angered. I think the blame is 50-50, because Moise shouldn’t have done that and the Curva should not have reacted that way.

“We are professionals, we have to set the example and not provoke anyone.”

Bonucci was keen to deflect the conversation away from the racial abuse.

“I prefer to talk about the great performance,” he said, “We were aggressive on the wings, as we knew they could cause problems with crosses.

“We knew Cagliari do zonal marking and leave that gap open, so we’d practiced in training yesterday and it worked out perfectly.”

Juventus coach Massimiliano Allegri, also spoke about the abuse towards his player and added onto what Bonucci had to say about Kean’s celebration. He said:

“I won’t justify what happened, as usual there were idiots and there were normal people.

“We need to find them and kick them out of the stadium … there are ways to do that, if they want to they can do it.

“He shouldn’t have celebrated in that manner. He is a young man and he has to learn, but certain things from the crowd also shouldn’t be heard.”

Raheem Sterling, Ian Wright and Paul Pogba have come out in defence of Kean while also criticising Bonucci for his comments.

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