Allegri: Juventus deserved victory over Manchester United

Juventus gave Manchester United a Champions League masterclass at Old Trafford, with the 1-0 scoreline hugely flattering the hosts.

After the game, manager Massimiliano Allegri commented on his side’s performance.

“Against Genoa we stopped a bit too early and were rightly punished. This evening we allowed a few chances when losing the ball cheaply and we should’ve been faster at moving the ball around, but when the players were static, the ball was too.

“Nonetheless, it was a good team performance and we deserved the victory.

“We won a lot of balls in the air, Alex Sandro played it simple and did very well in defence. We controlled the tempo in the first half and had chances to score more goals, getting the final or penultimate pass wrong, but the build-up was largely correct.”

Allegri had a number of veterans out with Mario Mandzukic, Sami Khedira and Emre Can all injured.

“Naturally we can play without Mandzukic, someone has to get into the box. It was important against Manchester United to keep the ball to ground and attack around Nemanja Matic.

“We still make too many mistakes on the final ball, as we had so many more chances and half-chances that we didn’t develop properly. A couple of times it was the player with the ball, another couple it was the player who didn’t peel away from his marker to reach the space.”

When asked if Juve were still one of the favourites to win the Champions League?

“There has been a constant growth process throughout the team and the club. Games must be read and there are times where you don’t need to lunge forward. We didn’t read it properly against Genoa, but this evening the team proved it can read the moments and strike at the right time.”

Despite Juve’s dominance, Allegri refused to call it more than a ‘professional job’.

“We played well especially in the first half, when we managed to slow the tempo down and break forward at pace.

“In the second half we created some decent openings but our final ball was off. That’s something we need to work on but the lads still deserve credit tonight.

“Our wide players showed great movement and made it hard for the opposition to keep tabs on them.

“We’ve grown in confidence – that was already clear in Valencia. Tonight we read the game well and slowed it down when we needed to.”