Allegri: ‘These moments happen in football’

If you had thought that after a couple of seasons of futility things were going to be turning around this season for Juventus, then the early signs are not good. In fact, they're actually very bad.

A succession of draws in the league have been paired up with two consecutive Champions League group stage defeats to open the tournament - for the very first time ever - means Massimiliano Allegri's position as coach of the Bianconeri is starting to look very tenuous.

At any other time in the club's existence, it would not be unimaginable that Allegri would be shown the door after the next defeat, but with the club's finances in the shambles they are in, who knows what happens next.

Speaking after the game, Allegri insisted he was going nowhere.

"I feel part of the solution, I must find a solution.

“When I returned, I thought it would take time to build. Unfortunately, I didn’t think we could lose two games in a row. The important thing is to do well and remain in the Champions League. These defeats are annoying, but it’s useless to talk too much now.”

On the game itself and what went wrong Allegri did not seem to have any answers.

“Football is difficult to explain, all we can say is that after going 2-1 down the game was over, we risked conceding 3-1 and 4-1.

“There was a chance late on, but the performance would not have been any better. There’s no point explaining and talking now, we can only work hard.

“I already told the team these moments happen in football, we need to emerge from them as a team, with a sense of responsibility. We have an important Serie A game coming up against Monza and after that we can think about Europe. It will certainly be complicated, but not all is lost.”

What was Allegri going to do about his side's inability to put in full ninety minute performances?

“I don’t have to criticise the team for anything, I understand the psychological situation of the team. We’ve had some difficult moments and reacted, but conceding that penalty on the stroke of half-time, that was a real blow to morale.”

Was this Allegri's toughest phase as coach of Juve?

"I’d never lost two games in the Champions League group phase before, but there’s a first time for everything.”