Max Allegri admits Napoli fully ‘deserved’ their 5-1 victory and Juventus must move on without getting ‘depressed’ by the Scudetto race setback. ‘We had less energy.’
This was considered a Scudetto showdown between the most prolific side in Serie A and the best defence, as Juve had conceded only seven goals this season, including eight consecutive victories with clean sheets.
Victor Osimhen’s brace paved the way for the Partenopei along with Kvicha Kvaratskhelia, Amir Rrahmani and Eljif Elmas.
Angel Di Maria had given Juve hope with a goal just before half-time, but that proved only a temporary balm.
“First of all, we must congratulate Napoli on their performance. We were a little low on energy when dealing with all the goals, were too deep for the opening 20 minutes and then conceded the second goal just as we were pushing forward,” Allegri told DAZN.
“We had chances and the feeling we could score, but this is football and every time Napoli had a shot, it could’ve been a goal. You just need to see the third goal when it was a corner that wasn’t cut out.
“There’s a long road ahead and many points up for grabs, so we have to get working and look forward.”
Allegri was asked if this was the most painful loss of his Juventus career.
“This was a deserved defeat, because we went into the game with less energy. The situations we conceded were also fairly easy to read and predict, but sometimes luck is on your side and sometimes it isn’t. We tried to turn it around towards half-time, but Napoli fully deserved it.
“That doesn’t mean we should let our heads drop, because we can be proud of the eight consecutive victories and need to get back on track in Serie A and the Coppa Italia.”
In recent matches, Juventus tended to grab winning goals late on, so there was no sign of this evident physical collapse.
“When you make errors like this against an opponent like Napoli, you are going to get punished. They are the leaders and deserve their current position.
“We must keep working, improving and try to get the injured players back. All negative situations also have positives, as we reacted well in the first half, even though the ball wasn’t falling kindly for us tonight.
“There’s no need to get depressed, just like there was no getting ahead of ourselves after the eight consecutive wins. It’s a defeat and we move on.”
The result leaves Juventus 10 points adrift of leaders Napoli and could be left behind by Milan tomorrow with their trip to Lecce.
It was Federico Chiesa’s first start since he tore his anterior cruciate ligament just over a year ago, but he was acting almost as a full-back in the first half.
“We went too deep with Chiesa and Kostic, after a few minutes I realised we had to switch McKennie and Chiesa’s positions to push him forward. When things go wrong like they did with all those goals, the ball doesn’t fall kindly and it’s also our fault for not having the same energy as Napoli.”