TORINO – Archived the defeat – between controversy and regrets – against Napoli, Juventus plunges back into the Italian Cup. Tomorrow evening, in fact, at the Giuseppe Meazza stadium in Milan, the bianconeri will compete for access to the last act of the competition in the semi-final second leg against Inter: we start again from the 1-1 draw of the first leg. Massimiliano Allegri presented the challenge at a press conference: “It will be a beautiful match, we will both play for the final. It will have to be a great evening of sport and we hope to go to the final, we will do our best. Training? Perin plays for sure. Vlahovic sprained his ankle this morning in training, I’ll have to evaluate it tomorrow, but he will hardly be in the match. Miretti? After a period of tarnishing, which I think is normal for a 2003 with more than 30 games for Juventus, he is returning in good condition. Just like Iling, who got hurt against Lecce, and now he seems centered again. It’s part of a centered path for these kids. Pogba? He’s better, tomorrow he’ll be able to play a piece of the match. Kostic and Church? They’re all fine. Milik? He played a good game, if he recovers he can play. Kean? He’s out safe, sorry if I forgot. We hope to have him available in about ten days and then tomorrow morning I will decide between Chiesa, Milik and Di Maria, whether all three play or just two. Because the game can be long and I may need to change. I expect from Di Maria what he has done up to now, he is an important player, extraordinary in play, on whom we rely a lot. He also proved it the other night when he entered the last half hour: he doesn’t need 90 minutes to decide, even half an hour is enough for him.“.
Allegri: the Italian Cup, Serie A and the Super Cup
“How do you prepare for a match like this with all the uncertainty for the future? We have to prepare the matches with great serenity and with a desire for revenge, above all by trying to reach an important goal such as the Coppa Italia final. Then if we’re good and lucky we’ll succeed, otherwise we’ll applaud Inter. When you get to this point in the season the matches become decisive. Then we will have the championship, where we come from 4 defeats in 5 games, and we have to get back on track. We have a difficult game against Bologna, but we still have a points lead. From the day after tomorrow we will put our lead back in the championship, because our goal is to stay in the top four at least, trying to finish second, because second place would guarantee us access to next year’s Italian Super Cup“, continues Allegri.
Allegri on Juve-Naples and the Landucci-Spalletti dispute
“We must continue to work on the pitch, behaving as we have always behaved with regards to attitudes towards what is off the pitch, and I am not talking about the courts but about sport. Complaints lead nowhere. At least as regards my first 5 years at Juventus, plus 2 now, there may have been a complaint, but I think not. But this is part of my way of thinking and consequently of all those who work at Juventus, especially at a technical level. We must continue with this behavior, because we must not waste energy. Complaints don’t bring points, you have to accept for better or for worse what happens on the pitch. We must be angry because we left a point on the pitch on Sunday, because the goal was nobody’s responsibility. It was our responsibility and we absolutely need to improve on this“, says Allegri about the dispute between his deputy, Landucci, and the Napoli coach Spalletti.
Allegri on Juventus’ next season
“The future? I have a two-year contract with Juventus and above all I am privileged to work for Juventus. I’ve been working here for 7 years, it’s not something many people do: I’m one of those and I feel privileged. Then in life there are moments of difficulty, when things don’t go well, and you have to face them with broad shoulders, serenity and with clear ideas in planning the future. When I am part of a company, I am a businessman, because I not only have a technical responsibility, but I also feel a responsibility where I have to add value to the players. We have to think about finishing the championship well, trying to finish second and it’s not easy, trying to reach the two finals and that’s not easy either, because the decisive matches can go good or bad. Football is like this, it must be accepted, but we must have clear ideas about what next season should be. We are a month and a half away from the end of the season and we have to plan the next one, but with serenity and the desire to be able to improve, knowing that Juventus must win again. I don’t know if we’ll succeed next year, but we’ll certainly try hard, as we’ve always done in recent years, where progress has been made, with important results from the youth sector. Juventus is at the forefront: it is the only one in Italy that has a second team, it is one of the very few that has two sports centres, it was one of the first at a female level and I believe that the last 10 years of Juventus have been important years . How the history of Juventus speaks. Then it is normal that in this moment we must remain silent. Apart from that you always have to keep quiet, both when you win and when you lose, but this is our stuff. We must continue to work with serenity, as we are doing“, continues Allegri.
Allegri about Daspo, the Italian Cup, the Europa League and the youngsters
“We must continue to behave ourselves. If we’ve made mistakes every now and then, saying something or getting up from the bench, we’ll try to avoid that too, because we have to have exemplary behavior and on this we have to improve what little there is to improve. Tomorrow will be a good match. What happened in the first leg must stay there. Decisions were made, Juventus took 171 people inside the stadium, thanks to a state-of-the-art stadium with an infinite amount of cameras. Two days later two were caught who had behaved unsuitably. In this respect Juventus is doing an excellent job and I think it is an example. We are happy with this. Tomorrow will have to be a good match from a footballing point of view and strong from a competitive point of view and then I hope that everything goes smoothly. But everything will go smoothly, because in the end it’s a football match. Every year we work to win trophies. Last year, unfortunately, we missed the Coppa Italia, this year we will try to go all the way and we also have an opportunity in the Europa League. But let’s say we’re doing a good job. Many young people have been included. Oh God, seeing what they’ve decided, a 22-year-old can be called young again… But this is part of the Italy-world. If it’s okay with them, it’s okay with everyone, but let’s not complain afterwards if we call a 22-year-old boy young. I think there are many things to fix and to fix them you have to decide. But they never decide… So that’s okay. As far as concentration is concerned, yes, in fact, the responsibility for the Napoli goal is ours, as it was in Sassuolo. It’s small oversights that make you win or lose a game. In the 93rd minute, if you haven’t won the games in 93 minutes, you can’t and you mustn’t lose them and instead the other day we were a bit inattentive“, says Allegri again.
(Full service follows)
Racist chants, the first 171 fans identified