Allegri: Juventus live for games like this

Juventus took an early lead against AS Roma and then failed to put away their opponents despite creating multiple openings. That led to a nailbiting last few minutes as the Romans threw everything they had in an attempt to get a point from their trip to J Stadium, but to no avail thanks to some inspired performances.

“It was a good game, but we didn’t finish it off and then struggled at the end. We could’ve had more goals, but winning 1-0 is always a nice feeling. In truth, we gifted the last chance to Roma and others too when we should’ve been comfortable.”

Allegri went with a 4-3-3 formation yet again, which meant Paulo Dybala remained on the bench for the whole game.

“Blaise Matuidi and the midfielders like Miralem Pjanic are important to push forward into spaces. Paulo is absolutely not a problem for Juventus. The problem would be not having him. At this moment, that’s just how things are, but it’s a long season, there are many games and we will need his goals.

“There are moments when you need some players and moments when you need others. Today we needed solidity. If Dybala had come off the bench, he would’ve done well tonight.

“Dybala understands the moment, he respects the decisions and the whole squad wins the game. On Wednesday he put in a great performance in the Coppa Italia against Genoa and I explained when he arrived that he can’t really be a centre-forward.”

Juve and Napoli are creating some separation at the top of the table, with both third-place Inter Milan and fourth-placed Roma losing.

“Roma and Napoli are candidates for the Scudetto. Inter are still up there and so are Lazio. It’s an important result tonight, because if Roma win their game in hand against Sampdoria next month, they’d have been level with us.

“There is no anxiety, because Juve live for games like this.”