Max Allegri insists he would not have changed the Juventus approach and his team ‘played well’ in the Champions League, but Villarreal ‘put nine men behind the ball’ in their 3-0 victory.
The Bianconeri crashed out of the Champions League in the Round of 16 for the third year running, but this was if anything even worse than the previous two, which came on away goals.
Champions League | Juventus 0-3 Villarreal (1-4 agg): Old Lady sunk by Yellow Submarine
Instead, Juve didn’t take their chances and then collapsed completely in the final 15 minutes with three entirely avoidable goals, including two penalties and a tap-in from a corner.
“I would play it the same way, as the lads did well for 65 minutes. At a certain point, Villarreal put everyone in defence and only an incident could break that deadlock,” Allegri told Amazon Prime Italia.
“We have to accept this defeat, it’s ugly, but I cannot complain about the lads, as they played well.”
Allegri seemed irritated with someone after the final whistle, though not Villarreal coach Unai Emery, so who was he annoyed at?
“I wasn’t angry with anyone. I congratulate Emery, as he had the right approach, it was one of his usual games. Look, let’s move on, controversy won’t help anyone.
“This is football, sometimes they go in your favour, sometimes against you, it’s just about accepting that.”
Allegri was again asked if he should not have been more aggressive, more pro-active and more attack-minded, but continued to stick to his guns.
“We tried to move the ball around, Villarreal had nine men behind the ball and didn’t even try to counter at one stage.
“We had our chances in the first half, they were aiming to either take this to extra time or make the most of incidents. We were naïve on the penalty, then rather than turning it around, we conceded another two goals and lost control of the match.”