Allegri: We need to improve the quality of our football

Juventus beat Porto 3-0 on aggregate to roll into the quarter final stage of the Champions League. The Bianconeri won 1-0 at home, with the visitors seeing Maxi Pereira for handling Gonzalo Higuain’s goalbound shot on the line, and Paulo Dybala dispatching the resulting penalty with immaculate ease.

There was little else to talk about in the game with Juve looking to keep the game quiet. Both sides missed good chances, with Massimiliano Allegri’s side going into cruise-control-mode in the second half and giving Porto plenty of room to play.

After the game, Allegri was quite unimpressed with the relaxed attitudes -

“The objective was to reach the top eight, now we’ll see who we end up with. We need to improve the quality of our football, which in the second half today left a lot to be desired, as the result isn’t everything.

“The more you try to force things, the worse they come out. The guys played an intelligent first half without running any risks, but in the second half against 10 men we weren’t giving the moves any pace and defended badly too, as we risked conceding a couple of times.”

On the strategy going into the game -

“We have to do one thing right: either attack and score more goals or decide to keep the ball and do that until the opposition falls asleep with boredom, but today we did neither properly.

“We had to make the full-backs run and then go into the space when it opened up, but instead we had too many short passes, trying to force our way through, and it wasn’t the right way. It also left us open to the dangerous counter-attacks.

“It was the maximum result with the minimum effort, fine, but we didn’t do it well in the second half. If we’re going to control the situation, control it well. Instead we were too hasty and in a way it’s fortunate, as now we can work on it in training and fix this problem.”

Allegri took Juan Cuadrado off at the half for Marko Pjaca -

“Cuadrado was on a yellow card, we were 1-0 up, so I thought it best not to risk. Pjaca is a young player who needs to understand that attacking is all well and good, but defending and working for the team is too. Cuadrado has the same issues.”

The manage was then asked about the potential quarter-finals opponents, but Allegri kept his answer vague -

“Whoever we end up against, we will face with hunger, enthusiasm, courage and the desire to get to the final.”