Allegri says Juventus will continue to play the same way
Despite his side’s “ugly” Champions League last-16 loss at the hands of Villarreal on Wednesday, Juventus head coach Massimiliano Allegri vowed he would play the same manner again.
Unai Emery’s side scored three goals in the closing 12 minutes, two of which were penalty kicks, to overcome the Bianconeri 3-0 at the Allianz Stadium, following a 1-1 draw in the first leg three weeks ago.
It was Juventus’ joint-heaviest home defeat in the Champions League, and they were eliminated in the last-16 for the third season in a row. Allegri, despite this, has no regrets about the way he assembled his team and has refused to criticize his players.
“I would play it the same way, as the players did well for 65 minutes,” he told Amazon Prime Italia. “At a certain point, Villarreal put everyone in defence and only an incident could break that deadlock. We have to accept this defeat, it’s ugly, but I cannot complain about the lads as they played well. This is football, sometimes it goes in your favour, sometimes it’s against you. It’s just about accepting that.”
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Villarreal equaled their highest margin of victory in the Champions League by scoring with all three of their shots on target.
At the other end, Juventus struggled to break them down, and Allegri believes they lost their discipline following Gerard Moreno’s penalty-kick opening.
“We tried to move the ball around,” he added. “Villarreal had nine men behind the ball and didn’t even try to counter at one stage. We had our chances in the first half. They were aiming to either take it to extra time or make the most of incidents. We were naive on the penalty and rather than turning it around, we conceded another two goals and lost control of the match.”
Juan Cuadrado’s 50th Champions League match for Juventus ended in defeat, but the Colombian international lost little time in returning to domestic competition.
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“We had a good first half, didn’t take our chances and that affected us,” he said. “We tried to move the ball more to create spaces after the break, but Villarreal defended well and were happy to wait for a counter-attack.
“We tried to do what the coach asked, move the ball around more to create spaces, but Villarreal were so well set out in defence that the only way of finding a way through was crosses. This is football.
“We now have to fight to the end to do well in Serie A. It’s natural to feel upset, but we still have objectives in Serie A and the Coppa Italia. We need to turn the page quickly and try to be at 100 per cent for those remaining matches.”
