Allegri remains confident in his Juventus side

Coach’s comments after Juve slip to Lazio making it just one win in the last nine.

Juventus slipped to another defeat, and now just one win and seven points in their last nine league games, with a 1-0 loss secured late on at Lazio yesterday. At his point the Bianconeri find themselves in third place six points behind AC Milan, with the chasing pack of Bologna, AS Roma and Atalanta not far behind, but coach Massimiliano Allegri remains confident of Champions League qualification.

“The statistics say that we are not doing well. Fortunately, we have a big advantage over fifth place.

“We must and we will achieve our target of Champions League qualification, even if it goes down to the final day of the season.

“This is not an easy moment, we must overcome it and turn things around.”

Standing in the dugout for his 500th league game, Allegri finally made a change to a 4-3-3 formation instead of the pedestrian 3-5-2.

“We didn’t control the ball well in the final minutes, but we can’t do anything about it now. I can’t reproach the lads for anything.

“We did not just suddenly become useless all of a sudden. We let them put in a cross and dealt with that situation badly, but we have this Coppa Italia game coming up and want to reboot.”

Former Juve defender Igor Tudor was marking his debut on the bench for the Romans, and Juventus will come up against the same opponent again on Tuesday in the first leg of their Coppa Italia semi-final.

“Lazio had a high press in the first half-hour, then we created a few chances, but needed to be more determined. You can’t concede a goal 10 minutes from time.”

On not only bowing out of the Scudetto chase but also giving up second place in the process.

“We dropped points along the way, but this remains an extraordinary group of players,

“We must be proud of this performance and things will change on Tuesday. It’s difficult in football, there are moments that go in your favour or against you. We just have to keep faith in what we are doing and keep faith in these players, because they are having a good season.

“At the moment, we are simply not getting the results, but the team is doing what it ought to do. We will emerge from this moment.”

With more and more pressure on the veteran manager, Allegri had one thing to say to the supporters.

“They should continue supporting us, we never lacked effort. These moments happen, we have the strength to get out of it.”