Juventus head coach Max Allegri aimed a jab at AC Milan after their 1-0 win over the Bianconeri at the Allianz Stadium last night.
It has not been the best fortnight for Juve, who were dumped out of the Europa League by Sevilla at the semi-final stage, and then lost 4-1 to Empoli in Serie A not long after they had been handed a 10-point deduction which threw them out of the top four.
It left them needing a miracle to get back in, starting with winning their last two games of the season, but Olivier Giroud’s first half header was the only goal of the game in Turin as Milan won to secure a spot in Europe’s top club competition.
Allegri spoke to DAZN after the game, reacting to the confirmation that Juve will not be in the Champions League next season, with his comments relayed by MilanNews.
On having pride: “After the match I thanked the boys who had an important and extraordinary season which should end with honour in Udine. I don’t wish a season like this on anyone. Add points, subtract points, on and off the pitch…
“Tonight there’s nothing to talk about. It was an anomalous season, then if you look at the standings and you say that Juventus had a bad season, we have to accept it but we don’t accept it because Juventus got 69 points on the pitch.”
On the three attacking players: “We ran out of energy in Sevilla, the season ended there. We also did well tonight and then we made a mistake in marking and Giroud scored an extraordinary goal.
“But there’s no point in talking about tonight’s match because the season was anomalous. Another group of players would have scored 50 and not 69 points. Having said that, we scored 69 points on the pitch and at the moment we’d be in the Champions League.”
What Juve need to rebound: “Now I need to rest: the sooner we break away, the better. We need to go to Udine to honour the game. We will calmly make choices and try to start again. However, it’s not all to be thrown away.
“What we cannot do is not keep the good base to build Juventus’ future. Let’s hope that this year, before 20 August, they’ll tell us if there will be any more penalty points and they won’t shoot us for the whole season.”
Why are you staying at Juventus? “Because we did a good job. This year we let five young players play. If I knew it was difficult to win when I came back, I’m not that stupid. I’ve always said that Juventus are always built to win according to what you say but it’s not always like this.
“There are teams that haven’t been in the top four for six years. Juventus’ season is a bankruptcy, but we’re in third place, we’ve played two semi-finals.
“We have to be strong: football gives and takes away. This year they took away a lot from us. Some teams are in the Champions League because they took 10 points from us.”
On ambitions: “Let’s not confuse being ready to win with ambition which, for Juve, is always to win. We had a nine-year cycle where we won a lot and now we haven’t won for three years. From me I thanked the guys.”
