Champions League 2016 – Round of 16: Juventus 2-2 Bayern Munich
When we fought the game and the tie was over at 2-0 for Bayern Munich with a wonderful goal from Robben, nobody in the stadium could believe Juventus would have the resources for a comeback with only 30 minutes to play. But they did it. The Italian champions showed resilience and fought hard to come away with the draw that looks like a win. Bayern holds the tie but we already know it will be a hard fought one!
Coach Juventus – Allegri analyses the game:
“We need to take away the great things we did in the second half whilst taking stock of and analysing properly the first 45 minutes too. We had the opportunity to play better from a technical standpoint before the break and we also created a number of openings, but we failed to capitalise on them under pressure.
For a certain period, they had ten players in our half and we did well to keep them at arm’s length. We did, however, need to be better at attacking the spaces when we won back the ball. When they took their foot off the gas, we grew in confidence, pressed them higher and played with less protection in front of the backline.
This enabled us to create even more opportunities to score and we were ultimately rewarded for a more open-minded approach. Tonight’s was a test to see if we were at the right level to make our mark in challenging scenarios and the performance fills us with considerable confidence which we’ll take with us into the remainder of the campaign.”
Coach Bayern – Guardiola on letting the game away:
You sense the disappointment in the dressing room. If you’re 2-0 up against opponents like these, you have to close out the win. We have to maintain our control, especially in defense. But we’re well-placed for the return.
But, I’m very satisfied with our performance. We played very well for 90 minutes. Obviously it would have been better to win, but we were playing against last year’s finalists. It was an incredible performance! It’ll be just as tough in the return as it was today. Juventus have great mental strength. We’ll need plenty of passion at the Allianz Arena but also cool heads, like we showed for the first hour today.”
