Llorente calls for Juve response

Fernando Llorente knows Juventus can ill afford to dwell on their UEFA Europa League heartbreak as they close in on another Serie A title.

The Turin giants were eliminated by Benfica with a 2-1 aggregate defeat at the semi-final stage, after a goalless second leg on Thursday, to miss out on a home final against Sevilla.

Juve must now turn their attention to Monday’s Serie A clash at home to Atalanta, when they could already have the title wrapped up if second-placed Roma fail to beat Catania on Saturday.

Even if Rudia Garcia’s side do secure all three points at the bottom-of-the-table side, Antonio Conte’s side can finish off the job by beating the Bergamo outfit.

And Spain striker Llorente will not be taking anything for granted against Stefano Colantuono’s side, who have picked up just one point from their last four games.

“We need to pick ourselves up straightaway, we’ve got an extremely important game ahead of us on Monday,” he told Juventus TV. “It’s not an easy league, many teams have caused us problems, but so far we’ve done really well.

“Atalanta won’t be an easy game. We need to try and put in a top performance and get back amongst the goals.”

Llorente has scored four goals in his last four league appearances, but was unable to fire them into the Europa League final.