Juventus boss Max Allegri was not entirely happy with his side’s performance despite the fact they got a long-awaited 1-0 win against AC Milan.
The game was ultimately conditioned by a red card that came five minutes before the break, when Malick Thiaw was adjudged to have been the last man when he brought Moise Kean down, forcing referee Maurizio Mariani to produce a red card.
Milan were still the better team for most of the game despite playing with 10 men from that points onwards, and it took a viciously deflected Manuel Locatelli shot for Juve to make their advantage count as they took all three points.
Allegri spoke to DAZN after the game to assess what was a hard-fought win for his side, with his comments relayed by MilanNews.
“We played well defensively. Football is made up of incidents, once in the lead we didn’t start the second half well, then we found the goal. In the end we should have managed it better,” he said.
“We shouldn’t have given the opportunity to create dangers on the counter, Leao is able to cancel out the man advantage. It’s been a long time since we won against Milan, the boys were good. In the closing stages, Milan shouldn’t have won the ball, we had to do better, even if playing at San Siro is never easy to play.”
On Leao: “He got away even with the double marking, but Weah and Gatti were good. We didn’t concede much to Milan. The boys did well in looking for the victory.”
On the victory: “We have to manage the ball better. We shouldn’t force the play. One match doesn’t change things, Milan, Inter and Napoli are the favourites for the scudetto, we have to return to the Champions League. I’m happy with Huijsen’s debut, he came in very well.”
On the table: “Behind us there are many teams who are advancing. We have to take one step at a time.”
On Locatelli: “He is criticised too much. He can clearly improve, but he is a Juventus player.”
Speaking on Sky, Allegri addressed why he got so angry that he took off his suit jacket and threw it away, as well as his tie.
“We are happy for the victory, but we needed to manage ball possession better. I got very angry because we can’t always risk restarts due to our mistakes,” he said.
“I congratulate Milan, it was a balanced game. Scudetto? Calm down, we’re enjoying the victory, the table doesn’t matter.”
The result certainly compacts the table as Juve are now one point behind Milan in third place, with the Rossoneri currently one point behind their city rivals Inter who are top.