Coach Massimiliano Allegri notes that Juventus “have done better” in this year’s Champions League group stage.
The Bianconeri reached the final of the competition last season, but only secured qualification for the Last 16 in the last group game.
“If we look at our results in Europe at the moment, the team have done better,” Allegri pointed out in his Press conference ahead of tomorrow’s Sevilla game.
Coach Massimiliano Allegri notes that Juventus “have done better” in this year’s Champions League group stage.
The Bianconeri reached the final of the competition last season, but only secured qualification for the Last 16 in the last group game.
“If we look at our results in Europe at the moment, the team have done better,” Allegri pointed out in his Press conference ahead of tomorrow’s Sevilla game.
“First of all we have a point more than last year, we’ve conceded two goals, we went unbeaten at home and most importantly we haven’t conceded a goal at home.
“So it would be a major achievement to finish the group unbeaten, especially because it would mean finishing first.
“I believe that Juventus are – as Gigi [Buffon] said before – continuing on the path which ended with the final in Berlin last season.
“This year we were in a very difficult group. Don’t forget, we’re in a group where we have Manchester City, who are one of the strongest teams in Europe.
“We have Borussia, who had a great League campaign last year and are recreating that this year, because they’ve climbed sharply, and then Sevilla who have won the last two Europa Leagues.
“So it was a very difficult group. The lads therefore deserve congratulations for playing very well in the group, but tomorrow is the most important and most difficult game for continuing in the Champions League.
“Who will play? I still haven’t decided on [Daniele] Rugani, I think the team is growing right now because individual players are growing.
“When I say that I’m talking about Rugani too, even though he hasn’t been playing. [Simone] Zaza has been growing, and we saw that at Palermo.
“[Paulo] Dybala is growing, and we also have to include [Mattia] Vitale in that group, he’s a lad who is always with us and has improved a lot in the last two months.
“I think he’s a lad who could carve out a space for himself during the course of the campaign, and that shows that there are good youngsters at Juventus, guided well by a group of older ones, who understand the responsibility they have.
“So I think that’s a nice mix to have a good season.”
Paulo Dybala has been in sensational form recently, after being in-and-out of the team in the early weeks of the season.
Was Allegri simply trying to protect the forward?
“Absolutely, I never had any doubt about the ability of the player, as I have no doubt about the ability of other players.
“He’s a 22-year-old lad – I’ll repeat that, he’s 22 – and he’s coming off a season with Palermo, his only one in Serie A, where among other things he wasn’t playing for the last three or four months because he was preparing to move to Juventus.
“So he has to be protected, just like all the lads. Right now he’s doing well, but there will come a time where he needs to stop and catch his breath.
“I hope he can play 50 games at the highest level, and above all improve. He can be one of the best players in the world, and with his quality he could get there.
“It’s just like the other players, they must be the same as [Alvaro] Morata who is a key player but has missed the last three games, and that can happen.
“But he’s a player who can become, with the qualities and the characteristics that he has, one of the best players around in the future.”