Max Allegri was adamant that Juventus played a good game in their 1-0 defeat to Inter in the Coppa Italia. The semi-final defeat means Juventus have won just once in their last seven matches in all competitions, leaving them with just the Europa League to play for. Speaking with Sportmediaset after the match (as quoted by tuttoJuve), the coach dismissed the idea that the clubs 15-point penalty had sapped the team of energy, pointing instead to the number of matches they’ve played and the need to have ‘broad shoulders’ moving forward:
What feelings do you have left?
“Overall we played a good game , but we shot little on goal, against Inter it’s difficult because they are a physical team, so we went out, we did not manage to get to the final of the Coppa Italia.”
Did that long run back from -15 points make the team come to this point empty of energy?
“Absolutely not, we need to recharge our energy because of the last 5 league games we lost 4, we lost in the Italian Cup. We have the Europa League semifinals, we need to roll up our sleeves, from tomorrow start working again with more nastiness, because we have third place to defend, we have Lazio two points away and we need to keep Roma and Milan away.”
How come you gave up Danilo from the start?
“Because Danilo is the one who had played the most, he played all the games, then he was cautioned. Bonucci had to come back, he was better and he also had a good game. We definitely had to do better in the offensive phase, in the first half they gave good pressure especially in the beginning and we were not able to overturn the result. It was not easy, because winning in Milan was not easy, however we tried to the end. It’s normal that you have to increase the attention, the desire, the nastiness to go for a result.”
Tonight they were so many mistakes and not being able to be dangerous in the offensive phase.
“It’s a shame because we played a good game for 60 minutes against a strong Inter team, because Inter is very strong, they have shown it, they are in the semifinals of the Champions League. It’s a shame we didn’t go to the Italian Cup final. Unfortunately this year, you have to be very good, you have to be strong in this moment, you have to have broad shoulders, because when you are in these situations you have to deal with everything that comes at you… we made it difficult for ourselves because on Sunday with Napoli we got nervous and conceded a poor goal, the guys know that. You all saw the first leg game with Inter. When there are these situations you have to be good and strong, because everything passes and then it gets fixed, eventually things come back.”
You surprised us with your initial choices. What was your game plan? At halftime then you changed.
“I changed because when they were sitting low it was difficult, or you were catching them on the counterattack in the first half…. in the second half when they dropped a lot it was normal that there had to be more presence in the box. Milik had had a very good game with Napoli, he was coming from an absence so there was a need to get him back. With Vlahovic out and Kean, out I had to play Chiesa, but I was convinced he could do well as a center forward, he worked hard. In the first half under pressure we gave away a little too many balls, but we have to have courage, open our wings, broad shoulders and go forward because we have seven games in the league and we have Roma and Milan who are three points behind us and Lazio is ahead.”
