Serie A – week 12
Following its first defeat of the season against Manchester United, Juventus reacted brilliantly with a strong performance at AC Milan. The leaders won 2-0 and maintain the gap with Napoli in the title race.
Cristiano Ronaldo put the game away with the second goal. It’s the eight goal of the season for the former Real Madrid player.
Juventus coach, Allegri, on the match:
“Losing against Manchester United has done us good and tonight it was a good response from the team.
We were a bit shell-shocked by the result on Wednesday but the boys went on the attack straight away in this game. We gave away a penalty after a counter attack, which was the only time Alex Sandro and [Blaise] Matuidi both pushed up, but [Wojciech] Szczesny did really well to save.
This game is a big step forward in the league because we’ve created a nine-point gap with Inter and we’re still six points clear of Napoli.
In the first half, we perhaps could have organised ourselves better in possession. In the second we did better and we were ruthless from a defensive point of view.
We need to shoot more on goal from outside the box, so as to put more pressure on our opponents. When we play with [Paulo] Dybala, [Mario] Mandzukic and [Cristiano] Ronaldo we’re less structured in attack, but it gives the opposition fewer reference points.
With the height in the side, we had more joy from balls forward and crosses. We’ve got players that are better at attacking the far post, rather than the near post, and that was something we did well tonight. Earlier in the season we were hitting our crosses low.”
