Juventus captain Giorgio Chiellini accepts the role of a centre-half is changing.

Chiellini was asked if he felt he was a dying breed.

"Football is evolving, and that's good," Chiellini responded.

“It's right to open up and learn new things, otherwise you'll never improve. That said, it'd be nice to keep the Italian culture which allowed us to achieve great things.

“If I look back I think of [Fabio] Cannavaro, [Alessandro] Nesta, [Franco] Baresi, [Paolo] Maldini, then you can go back to [Claudio] Gentile and [Gaetano] Scirea.

“In short the history of Italian football has been made by great defenders, certainly not only them but I hope that in the future we can have stories of more great victories, possibly achieved thanks to great defenders."