Juventus suffered their first home defeat of the season, losing 0-1 to Stuttgart in the Champions League. Manager Thiago Motta, speaking to Sky Sport after the match, acknowledged that his team was outplayed and deserved to lose.
Motta began by assessing the game: “They deserved it from the first minute; they were better than us. We need to accept it, improve, recover, and digest the defeat as quickly as possible. Then we need to stand up and face a big game against Inter. We weren’t able to take control of the game from them. In the first half, they were escaping our pressure with their right-sided center-back. When they have control, they put you in difficulty. They’re a difficult team to face, and today we suffered.”
Addressing the difference in pace between Italian and European football, Motta said: “I don’t think we go slow in Italy. Too many interruptions in Italy? This isn’t the moment for that analysis. Certainly today in this match, we struggled with their rhythm and their game. We had difficulty imposing ourselves. There are many things to analyze about Italian and international football… High rhythm, teams that want to have the ball, high rhythm and low rhythm. This is the level, and we can raise it in Europe to compete.”
Motta also discussed Juventus’ offensive struggles: “Few attackers? Everything we see is shared with the club. In the offensive phase, we need to do better to compete, but a more complete analysis needs to be done. We also need to improve the defensive phase because when you recover the ball, you’re not in a condition to attack. We have difficulties in building from the back. We need to improve a lot. Today we often suffered without possession, sometimes on the counter-attack we created something.”
On the team’s ability to dominate play and create chances, Motta took responsibility: “We did little, and that’s my responsibility. Now we have a big challenge against Inter. We need to digest this defeat and continue to improve where we can.”
