Max Allegri admits Juventus losing the Supercoppa Italiana to Inter five seconds from the final whistle makes him feel ‘football was invented by the Devil.’
The Bianconeri had taken the lead somewhat against the run of play through a Weston McKennie header, cancelled out by the Lautaro Martinez penalty.
It was about to go into a shoot-out towards the end of extra time when Alexis Sanchez popped up and snatched the last-gasp winner, pouncing on a poor Alex Sandro defensive error.
“It was a real game, a good test for us to see where we are. Unfortunately, football sometimes feels like it was invented by the Devil,” Allegri told Sport Mediaset.
Supercoppa | Inter 2-1 Juventus aet: Alexis Sanchez last-gasp winner
“We made a naïve mistake five seconds from the end, but played against the strongest team in Italy at the moment and had several chances, allowing Inter very little. We struggled in the opening 10 minutes, but then did really well.”
Sport Mediaset and their touchline reporter stated just before the goal that Allegri and his staff had been urging Juve players to give away a free kick so that Leonardo Bonucci could come on as a substitute for the penalties, but this might’ve distracted them at the key moment.
“A defeat five seconds from the end hurts, but we need to use that anger for Serie A, the Coppa Italia and the Champions League.
“We need to look at the positives, the team is improving, especially physically. It was a one-off game, it didn’t go the way we wanted, so now we focus on the league.”
It was a good performance considering the number of players Juventus were missing, including Matthijs de Ligt, Juan Cuadrado, Wojciech Szczesny, Federico Chiesa, Danilo, Aaron Ramsey and Leonardo Bonucci.
“This is proof there is a unified approach from everyone. Despite the final error, we saw Alex Sandro return to his usual level, while Daniele Rugani did well again in defence after the Roma game.”
Paulo Dybala came off the bench, but seemed again far from full fitness.
“As we risked in previous games and he suffered relapses, playing more than we had intended against Roma, we realised that extra time was possible and had to plan for no more than 60 minutes.
“The first 10 minutes were timid, but we gained confidence and allowed Inter practically nothing in the second half.
“I congratulated the lads on the performance, as it was not easy. When you lose a game like that, especially a trophy, five seconds from the end and have to watch the opposition celebrate, that’s going to hurt. We need to use that going forward.”