Allegri advocating Juve after a schock exit from Champions League: “One of the best matches of the season”
On the night of 16-17 March at the Allianz Arena in Turin, Juventus hosted Villarreal in the UEFA Champions League 1/8 finals and the match was full of intrigue. However, Juve had no luck at all and they were again crashed out of the Champions League for the 5h season in a row. Maximiliano Allegri, however, believes that the result is not a fair result, and his side have produced one of their best performances of the season.
This time, the Italians failed to cope with Unai Emery‘s humble Villarreal. A 0-3 thrashing does not describe the picture: the Turin side attacked for most of the game and looked stronger. But it certainly doesn’t make Agnelli and company feel any better.
Let us remind you that the first meeting between the teams ended in a 1-1 draw. In their quartet, Vilarreal have picked up 10 points and qualified into the last eight of the Champions League from second place in Group F. Juventus scored 15 points and finished the group stage in first place in the Group H standings.
There were at least two first-half goalscoring opportunities: first, Rulli saved a vital Alvaro Morata shot, then Dušan Vlahović stepped up. First, he hit the crossbar with a solid strike and, after a couple of minutes, he should have scored from a corner.
Villarreal struggled to resist the Turin side’s pressure throughout the first half – but Emery’s side survived. In the second half, Unai made a number of substitutions and, in the final 14 minutes, the Yellows completely ate the Zebras thanks to the arrival of fresh Gerard Moreno and Francis Coquelin.
Special praise must go to the Submarines` number 7, who turned the match over by earning two penalties! Single-handedly eclipsed the entire Juve attack efforts in just half time. Oh.
Thus, Vilarreal made it to the quarter-finals of the Champions League, while Juventus finished the tournament.
Goals: 78th by Moreno (penalty), 85th by Torres, 90+2 minutes by Grunewald (penalty).
Unai Emery has a lot to be commended – he fixed problems in defence at half-time. That’s important, as is the failure in the first half and the lack of attack until the 75th minute. That’s why praise must be given, but not over-praise (and there is a risk for this, given the glaring scoreline).
Juve deserve a lot of criticism, despite the bad luck they produced a really weak second half and a generally lacklustre ending of the match. That’s important, but so is the territorial advantage gained through pressing and the chances from the first half – we should admit. There were plenty of positives in the opening stages, but Allegri’s side clearly failed the test that involves responding to difficulties and bad circumstances.
‘I would play it the same way, as the lads did well for 65 minutes. At a certain point, Villarreal put everyone in defence and only an incident could break that deadlock,’
Allegri told after the match.
‘We have to accept this defeat, it’s ugly, but I cannot complain about the lads, as they played well. There are 10 teams in Europe that are on a better level than Juventus. It’s not a shame, it’s the reality. It’s not fair to say that this is a
“How do we get back on track? To forget about this result immediately, because we still have Serie A matches to play. We can’t influence the result anymore. We were unlucky because for 75 minutes we played well and created some chances.”
“In the second half it became more difficult because they were waiting in their own half and we were not as good. And one episode could have decided the game. And that’s what happened.”
“The fans come to the stadium, they have the right to decide whether to whistle or applaud. But this time, the boys did not deserve to be condemned because they played one of their best games. Including in terms of technique,”
the Juventus coach said of the fan whistle at the end of the game.
Experienced Juventus defender Leonardo Bonucci commented on the result of the return leg:
“This is the first time in my career that I have experienced such a game from the sidelines and I was not on the pitch, so I understand how our fans feel on nights like this and apologising to everyone is the only thing to do at the moment. But together we must turn this frustration and annoyance into anger to take on the remaining games and achieve the goals that remain”
wrote the Italian on his Instagram, admitting they should focus on the remaining Serie A games.
“These games are always full of challenges, our goalkeeper did a great job and we were lucky with the crossbar. We defended deeply, but then we stepped up and got more space to break through the Juventus defence, which concedes very little. We were patient and did a lot of things right. After the first goal, there were more free spaces and we made the most of that in the last 15 minutes of the match.”
admitted Unai Emery that his team are lucky to qualify for the next round.
- Villarreal goalkeeper Gero Rulli is named the Champions League Player of the Week.
- Juve is spending significantly more comparing to the clubs who eleminates them from the play-offs for these 4 years: Ajax (€200m vs 621m for Juve), Lyon (€310m vs 573m for Juve), Porto (€152m vs 481m for Juve), Villarreal (€138m vs 440m for Juve).