Carrera proud of Juve grit

Juventus stand-in coach Massimo Carrera has voiced his pride after his troops overturned a half-time deficit to beat Genoa 3-1 on Sunday.

After a static first-half performance, Juve were in danger of letting their 41-game unbeaten run slip, but recovered thanks to goals from Emanuele Giaccherini, Mirko Vucinic and Kwadwo Asamoah to make maintain their 100 percent Serie A record this season.

And Carrera insisted his side were entirely focused on matters at the Luigi Ferraris, despite their impending return to the Champions League against Chelsea on Wednesday.

“In the second half we upped the pace and turned the game,” he told Tuttosport.

“(Our heads) were in Genoa, not at Chelsea, but we suffered in the first half. Genoa started strong, and caught us unprepared two or three times off of restarts.”

Carrera reserved special praise for keeper Gianluigi Buffon, who made a number of impressive saves when his side were on the ropes.

“(His) great save from (Andrea) Bertolacci kept us in the game,” he said.

The former Italy defender also explained his decision to start Alessandro Matri in place of regular striker Vucinic, who came off the bench to score from the penalty spot.

“Vucinic is a great champion, but (earlier) this week he had played in the (Montenegro) national team, so we chose Matri,” Carrera said.