Allegri pleased despite Juventus defeat

Juventus coach Massimiliano Allegri was pleased with his side’s performance despite going down 1-0 to Sevilla in the Champions League on Tuesday.

The loss against the Spanish side meant Manchester City jumped above Juve on the table to finish top of Group D.

Fernando Llorente came back to haunt the side that let him leave for free in the off-season, with the 30-year-old scoring the only goal of the game at the Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan.

Allegri knew his side were not at their best but still managed to take some positives out of the performance.

“Those who expected this tie to be a formality were mistaken. Sevilla are a different animal in front of their own fans,” he said.

“The important thing is to take a step back and look at our performance this evening, which was good across the whole team. We need to turn our attentions now to a testing fixture at the weekend against Fiorentina.

“There are no easy games at this level. We needed a positive result tonight but if you create chances and don’t take them, then outcomes like this are always likely.

“We rushed things and turned the ball over far too often at crucial points during the encounter. We managed the game slightly better in the second period and I feel that we tried to force things a little too much before we conceded.

“It’s important to make sure that you always have control of proceedings and not let the tempo get out of hand. If anything, the onus was more on Sevilla to pick up the pace, seeing as they were playing at home.

“Instead, they were able to feed off our urgency and get the crowd right behind them.

“The most important thing, as I’ve said all along, was to qualify for the knockout stages. We’ve grown as a group as the tournament has gone on and let’s not forget that we fielded a young side tonight.

“Nights like this will only help us in the long run. Now we need to turn our attentions to the league and make sure we bounce back on Sunday against Fiorentina.”

Allegri also praised Juve’s Spanish striker Alvaro Morata despite the 23-year-old missing a great opportunity in the first half.

“Last season Alvaro was in direct competition with Fernando Llorente for his place in the team and he had a stunning campaign,” he said.

“He’s had his ups and downs so far this term but he has been excellent for us in Europe and I thought he put in a very strong performance tonight. It’s a shame that he missed his chance in the first half but these things happen.”