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Vidal admired in Italy but under fire in Chile

Juventus supporters have nothing but unrestrained admiration for the feisty midfielder, a tireless and versatile player who complements his ball-winning abilities with excellent distribution and an impressive scoring record.

Vidal, whose side visit AC Milan on Sunday in a meeting of Italy's two Champions League representatives, has scored eight goals this season, five in Serie A and three in the Champions League.

He was voted man of the match by both UEFA and Gazzetta dello Sport after scoring one goal and providing another in Juventus's 3-0 win over Chelsea on Tuesday.

"I'm happy to wear the shirt of Juventus, to play in front of these fans," said Vidal, who joined the club at the start of last season and won the scudetto at his first attempt. "I'm living through a beautiful moment of my life."

"The gesture was for those people in Chile who have criticised me," he told Gazzetta.

His most recent red card came a week ago for a shocking tackle from behind during Chile's 3-1 friendly defeat by Serbia.

Chile team-mate Pablo Contreras said Vidal had been made a scapegoat for his team's run of five defeats in a row.

"After everything that has happened, it's much easier to blame Arturo Vidal, but it is the whole team which has not been good enough during this period," he said.

"Football gives you so much and not everybody can handle it," he told FIFA.com in an interview this month.

"You need to grow up as a person and, because of the position you're in, sometimes you have a duty to set an example. But that's not an easy task because to do that you need certain qualities that only come with time.

"On the one hand, the Chilean media are always looking for details on what goes on away from the pitch. And on the other, Chilean players tend to be quite shy, which makes them even more nervous about speaking."

Last season's meeting between the two sides at San Siro was a top-of-the-table clash which ended in controversy and proved to be a decisive moment in the season.

Leading 1-0 and dominating the match, Milan had a second goal disallowed when officials failed to spot that Sulley Muntari's header had crossed the line. Juventus snatched an equaliser and went on to win the title.

Partly because of the incident, the Italian federation decided to adopt UEFA's system of having extra officials behind each goal line for Serie A this season.