Higuain: I need to score more in Europe

Gonzalo Higuain knows he needs to improve his Champions League scoring record and says Juventus are determined to make amends for their defeat in last season’s final.

The Argentine striker has scored 18 goals in Europe’s top competition over the course of his career at Real Madrid, Napoli and Juventus, five of which came last season, when the Bianconeri were beaten 4-1 by Zinedine Zidane’s Blancos in the final.

Higuain’s return from 12 games in Europe last term pales in comparison to Lionel Messi’s 11 goals from nine games, or Cristiano Ronaldo’s 12 in 13, and he agreed with Juventus coach Massimiliano Allegri’s assertion that he can improve.

“Allegri says I need to score more in the Champions League? He’s right,” the 29-year-old was quoted as saying by Football Italia.

“We’re thinking of the new year, which will be harder and longer. We’re motivated and we really want to make up for last year.

“I always want to win and score more, even if we’d won the Champions League last year we couldn’t have let up.”

Ronaldo’s pair of goals either side of half-time badly damaged the hopes of a Juventus side that had conceded just three times en route to the final in Cardiff, but Higuain is keen for his team-mates to bury those memory by going one better in 2017-18.

“We had a very good approach, for the first 10 or 15 minutes we were better than Madrid,” he said.

“In the second half they were more angry, we relaxed and they massacred us. We could have done more, but the past is the past.

“Allegri is right when he says the final shouldn’t discredit our whole season. In two days we went from being the best team in Europe to an ordinary one.

“We don’t feel like the best team in Europe, but we’re not ordinary either. We can fight with the best.”