Max Allegri admits Juventus beat Zenit 1-0 in the Champions League with ‘a bad performance’ and explains what Dejan Kulusevski still needs to learn.
Champions League | Zenit 0-1 Juventus: Kulusevski to the rescue
It is the fourth consecutive 1-0 victory for the Bianconeri in all competition, keeping their Champions League perfect start intact with a third win out of three.
Kulusevski came off the bench to nod in the Mattia De Sciglio cross in St Petersburg late on.
“It was important for the points, it wasn’t easy as Zenit clammed up in defence and we made a lot of errors in the final third. We slowed it down too much and allowed too many shots on goal with counter-attacks by losing the ball,” Allegri told Sky Sport Italia.
“We should’ve controlled it more once we went 1-0 up, too. It was not a great performance, but we got the result and that puts us in a very strong position.
“We needed to create width today and play between the lines. At times it went well, at others it didn’t.”
Elsewhere in the group, Chelsea thumped Malmo 4-0, including a brace of Jorginho penalties, but lost Romelu Lukaku to injury.
Kulusevski confessed it is his own fault if he’s not playing more often, as he still needs to learn what Allegri wants.
“He is a Sweden international, but hasn’t played many Champions League games. He must learn how to control the game, when to speed up, when to slow down. He has the talent, he just needs to make better choices and he’s more than capable of that.”
Juventus go into a Serie A showdown with Inter on Sunday evening, so what mood are the Bianconeri in?
“We got a good result with a bad performance, so the perfect combo to be fired up and play well this weekend,” smiled Allegri.