Gregoire Defrel’s excellent finish caused Juventus to lose on Sunday, giving them their third league road loss in four games and their second straight Serie A setback.
After suffering a “slap in the face” during their 1-0 loss at Sassuolo, Massimiliano Allegri bemoaned the fact that Juventus had only recently found their feet.
Juventus now finds itself in seventh position, nine points behind Milan for the final Champions League spot, and will defend a 1-0 lead against Sporting CP in their Europa League quarterfinal second leg on Thursday.
Prior to falling down, Juventus scarcely made a threat, but in the last minutes, they came alive. Adrien Rabiot’s stunning header was saved by Andrea Consigli, while Angel Di Maria missed a fantastic opportunity to score, Allegri was frustrated, but it did not help.
We did not play well for an hour, then reacted after the slap in the face of the goal.
It was an important game for the table, but it was a second consecutive defeat in the league.
We’ve got to get back to our feet, work on what we got wrong and take a different approach to the matches. All we can do is stay quiet, work hard and drag out the last drops of energy to get past Sporting.
I told the players this was an important step. Instead, we dropped points.
Allegri told DAZN.
Since his return from a calf injury that sidelined him for more than six months, Paul Pogba has made just four appearances this season, all of which have been as a substitute.
However, Allegri claimed that the France midfielder is still a long way from where Juventus had thought he would be.
There are players like Federico Chiesa and Paul Pogba who are getting back into shape, while others have played a lot more and are tired.
I saw improvements from Pogba, but he’s still a long way behind schedule and not in condition to play 90 minutes.
We’ll try to slowly get him up to 30 minutes and see how he responds.”
Allegri added.