Juve deserved win despite lull, says Conte

Juventus boss Antonio Conte admitted his team were not at their best in a hard-fought 1-0 Serie A win against Lecce on Sunday.

Alessandro Matri’s 27th-minute goal ensured Juve remained undefeated and stayed second with the win at Stadio Via del Mare.

While he felt his team deserved their three points, Conte said it was far from their best performance of the campaign.

“I think we deserved to win, it was not a bad performance. We have definitely put in better performances recently,” Conte said.

“But it wasn’t easy to come here to Lecce and win the game against such a motivated team, also because their attitude against us has changed.”

“Every team now faces us with great determination and motivation. If we’d managed to finish the chances we had, we could have scored the second goal to make it easier for us.”

Striker Fabio Quagliarella led the attacking line for Juventus, but he fractured his cheekbone during the win and Matri scored after coming off the bench.

On starting Quagliarella ahead of Matri, Conte said: “I chose Quagliarella for a technical reason. We had to play with a very close team with a five-man defence and we needed a striker who could take part in the action.”

“We needed to create spaces up the field, while Matri would have needed a more open game, even if he is working a lot to become a more complete player.”