Juve want to forget Inter and keep Roma at a distance

The bianconeri tonight in Cagliari in search of the three points with the goal of 4th place Allegri relies on the Dybala-Vlahovic duo and warns: “It will be a bad game”

TORINO

Better not be under any illusions. “A bad game will come out in Cagliari,” said Massimiliano Allegri after sniffing the air and remembering that tonight he will challenge Walter Mazzarri’s Sardinians in full crisis. It is not the time for the good game and for the subtleties, also because the compliments received after the defeat against Inter were not liked. “They also annoy me – adds the Juventus coach -, because then there are excuses: here there must be no alibis, there must be no compliments, but there must be only victories”. A good roar to warn the Bianconeri and avoid a dangerous psychological backlash in this final of the season: now for Juventus only the substance counts and therefore the three points to forget Inter, but above all to keep Mourinho at a safe distance. «Let’s not lose sight of the goal of 4th place – Allegri repeats without stopping – because it is a moment to pass from the championship fight to Roma fifth in the standings at -2. We need to be lucid, understand the moment and stay focused without thinking about the market: we are all at stake ».

The awakening after the Derby d’Italia was not the easiest for Juve, amid referee controversies and another failed test of the truth. It was from 1961/62 that the bianconeri did not obtain a victory against the top three teams of the championship, at the time they closed in 12th place, and the Champions qualification becomes the obstacle to cling to while waiting to understand if the Italian Cup (semi-final of return with Fiorentina on 20 April) will avoid the first season with “zero titles” after 10 years. «Each team arrives in the position it deserves – reflects Allegri – and we must not have regrets. We have to be realistic: we are fourth and we deserve to be fourth, as when we were tenths we deserved to be tenths. We had a great chance with Inter and we didn’t hit it, now we need to turn around and think about scoring as many points as possible ».

To beat Cagliari, fresh from 4 consecutive defeats and fourth from bottom in the standings with just 3 points ahead of the Venice-Genoa duo, Juventus relies on the Dybala-Vlahovic duo to find the lost goals in what is the 10th attack of Serie A. Allegri shuffled the cards and yesterday he tried a chameleonic form with three midfielders (Zakaria, Arthur and Rabiot) plus two full-fledged wingers (Cuadrado and Pellegrini): in practice a 3-5-2 like that of Cagliari ( “We will face them as if it were the last match of the championship”, charges the former Mazzarri grenade) which can become 4-3-3 or even that 4-2-3-1 seen against Inter. In the end, however, the attitude and the desire to win will count above all. “You have to be practical – underlines Allegri – and in football you react by making great matches”. –