Allegri ‘pleased’ with Juve display

Juventus boss Massimiliano Allegri admitted he was pleased with his team’s performance in Tuesday’s 2-1 defeat of Real Madrid.

Goals from Alvaro Morata and Carlos Tevez in between a Cristiano Ronaldo header means the Serie A outfit take a slender advantage to Madrid for the return leg.

“I’d say I’m pleased with the performance as technically it was a great game, even if I think we can do better,” Allegri told reporters.

“I’d say everyone was involved in the match, defending and attacking, while [Stefano] Sturaro only arrived three months ago and he’s grown a lot, which is also great credit to the club.”

The 47-year-old said he was aware Juve face an extremely difficult trip to Spain and feels his team will need to score at least a goal at the Santiago Bernabeu to make it to the final in Berlin.

“I think if we want to make the final we’ve got to deliver a masterpiece in Madrid. We’ve laid the foundations and my players showed great personality, effort and determination.

“[Roberto] Pereyra has the legs and he’s fast. If we’d needed him he’d have come in handy but [Arturo] Vidal gave me more guarantees to hurt them in the middle and force Madrid out wide.

“The result says we face an uphill task and it’s not easy to get a result in Madrid. We need to recognise how important this result is and it was a great display. We also celebrated winning the League tonight.

“We’ve played some good football this season and tonight I’d say we showed signs we are superior to Madrid.

“Now we must prepare for Wednesday knowing we have to play even better than tonight. If everything goes well I hope to give Paul Pogba a run-out on Saturday as I can’t take him to Madrid without him having played a bit.

“We’ll be up against a wounded opponent so we’ve got to score there or it will be really difficult to come home with a place in the final,” he concluded.

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