Empoli coach Paolo Zanetti was disturbed by the way his team ‘vanished’ in the final 25 minutes against Juventus, warning ‘this is the kind of game where you can concede seven or eight.’

It was a relatively even game in the first half, as Moise Kean’s early goal had Juve in the lead, but the Tuscans had 66 per cent possession and both sides had 10 attempts on goal.

After Weston McKennie nodded in the Juan Cuadrado corner, that is when the Bianconeri started to run riot and sealed a 4-0 victory with an Adrien Rabiot brace.

“The problem is that we played for 60 minutes, then completely vanished from the field, when this is the kind of game where you can concede seven or eight if you’re not careful,” Zanetti told DAZN.

“It is something that I absolutely take responsibility for, as we had the game relatively under control for much of it, but we struggle in the final third, whereas Juve always seemed dangerous when actually attacking.

“Evidently the second goal hit us so hard mentally that we just stopped playing. Juve are very strong, but despite that, I hope that we can learn from this overly-heavy defeat.”

Until that McKennie header from a corner, Empoli had not conceded any headers so far in Serie A this season, but then let in another from Rabiot and only Guglielmo Vicario prevented Arkadiusz Milik from netting another.

“It’s worrying because we had always been very good at defending on set plays, yet tonight we were weak in our defending from that situation and it’s incredible to be so soft in such a big match.

“It is best not to talk to the boys in the heat of the moment. We’ll sleep on it, then tomorrow analyse the match and try to learn from it. I saw a team play with character and good football for 55-60 minutes that threatened an equaliser, but it’s one thing to lose 1-0 and another to lose 4-0.”

Marko Pjaca and Koni De Winter started in Turin, both of them currently on loan from Juventus.

“I picked Pjaca because he is owned by Juventus and felt that he had a point to prove. I think he had a good game, it’s just that the whole team vanished for the final 25 minutes.”

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