Allegri: ‘Juventus afraid of conceding a goal’

Max Allegri hails Juventus for ‘being afraid of conceding a goal’ in the narrow win over Roma, reiterating this gets them closer to Champions League qualification rather than the Scudetto.

There was an opportunity to close on leaders Inter after the 1-1 draw in Genoa last night and the Bianconeri took it, securing the 1-0 victory over Roma thanks to an Adrien Rabiot strike on the Dusan Vlahovic back-heel flick.

As is tradition, the Old Lady clung on under pressure to win in Allegri’s famous ‘corto muso’ (by a nose) style, as they have won 12 Serie A matches by a scoreline of 1-0 in 2023.

“It was a good game, because playing against Roma is never easy, especially when Jose Mourinho is on the opposition bench,” Allegri told DAZN.

“We ran risks in the first half with a few Paulo Dybala balls that went into the box, but remained solid. We scored after the restart and could’ve had a second goal.

“It was important to win, especially as we continue to break away from the teams behind us. Once it comes to January 7, we’ll see how many points we racked up in the first half of the season.”

This result puts Juve just two points off leaders Inter, so they could still be crowned Winter Champions, as the season reaches the midway stage in the next round.

That will see Juve visit Salernitana and Inter host Hellas Verona on the weekend of January 7.

“At this moment, I think we are in good shape physically, the last three days of training were good too and we had some impressive passing moves today. We gave the ball away a bit too often and need to work on that, but above all on the diagonal passes and how to play out from the back,” added Allegri.

“The best thing is that after conceding straight after taking the lead, see against Frosinone and Genoa, the team has returned to being afraid of conceding a goal. When you are afraid of conceding a goal, you defend with greater concentration.”