Max Allegri maintains Inter are the Scudetto favourites after their 1-0 victory in Turin and the coach is glad Juventus are finally out of the discussion. ‘We need to secure fourth place and get ourselves ready for a strong start next season.’

The Bianconeri poured forward throughout in Turin, with 20 shots to just five for Inter, but Hakan Calhanoglu converted the decisive penalty in first half stoppages.

It had to be retaken for encroachment from Matthijs de Ligt after Wojciech Szczesny had saved the spot-kick first time around.

Serie A | Juventus 0-1 Inter: Derby d’Italia decided by repeat penalty

The coach was asked about the controversies, but shrugged them off.

“Let’s avoid saying things that won’t help right now. I am happy to talk about the performance. It was a good game from my team, we played well, had lots of shots on target, it’s a pity about the defeat,” Allegri told DAZN.

“It was a good Juventus, this team is improving, we had more vertical passes, found the strikers better and did well on a technical level.”

Allegri had said repeatedly that Juve were not in the running for the Serie A title and now that is confirmed, their 16-match unbeaten league run ended by Inter.

“Finally, people can say Juventus are definitively out of the Scudetto race! We just need to get as many points as possible to secure fourth place, then get ourselves ready for a strong start to the next season.

“Next season, we will have been working together for a year, so we will start trying to win the Scudetto. Naturally, this year we started badly and had to recover a lot of games. We were also beaten by individual incidents in the big matches.

“We should see the glass half-full, we are becoming a team, we still have real margin for improvement and need to work on further strengthening those aspects.”

With Paulo Dybala leaving this summer as a free agent, do Juventus have someone ready to take over in his place or a profile they have identified?

“I have to meet with the club to discuss the situation. After this match is definitely not the right time for that meeting.

“I was watching back our Champions League game last night and it was very similar, we had so many chances, but we didn’t score. I wanted to see if the judgment people had on our performance was fair, but they really weren’t even close.”

Allegri transformed his tactics for this match, using a 4-2-3-1 formation and it was one of Juve’s best performances of the season.

“I had only one doubt in midfield, but Rabiot had an extraordinary performance this evening. He has been criticised so much, but he was fantastic tonight. Zak also had a great game coming in for Locatelli, as every time he plays, he has at least one scoring opportunity.”

Locatelli went off injured barely half-an-hour into the match.

“He got his head smashed in, but the problem was the knee, it looks like a strained collateral ligament, he should be out for 20 days.”

Inter are now third on 63 points with a game in hand, Napoli and Milan have 66, but the Rossoneri play Bologna tomorrow. Who does Allegri tip for the Scudetto?

“You just have to look at the fixture list to know Inter are the favourites. They got an important win here, they have a game in hand, this was a confidence-booster and yes after tonight’s match they are the favourites.”

10 thought on “Allegri: ‘Inter are Scudetto favourites, Juventus build for next term’”
  1. Build for next term. But Vlahovic’s 70M, Chiesa’s 65M and Locatelli’s 35M need to be paid. So with what money are they going to revamp their midfield with?

  2. Loca is overrated and Juve keep buying these mentally and physically weak players. Barella showed who is boss. Dusan is no Mbappe or Haaland. He is all left foot and is another Lukaku in terms of power. He needs players around him but do not be surprised if they get nobody. The midfield has never existed since the days of Pirlo and Vidal. As for Allegri if you start Sandro you are already a goal down as you take away any threat from the left. Is it no surprise that everything has to go through Cuadrado.

  3. what next term?
    pirlo with TWO trophies got sacked..
    and you, with 0-3, 0-1, and many more losses still hoping next term?

  4. i hope he will go because with this kind of football for four years we will get nothing in the end

  5. I am not a big Allegri fan, but he has done well so far. He has been handed a mediocre midfield, a toothless attack and a defence that leaks from every angle. So, to be 4th in the table is good…He has just to ensure Juve qualify for the UCL next year!! The financial implications of not qualifying will be catastrophic!!!

  6. Juve is a team that have everything to do well. They have the players. They also have talented youth players they don’t even used. Kulusevski and Bentancur is now floorishing elswhere.
    Locatelli was great under De zerbi and Mancini and under Allegri he becomes a mediocre player.

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