Despite failing to earn a win in his first three attempts in Serie A, Max Allegri marked his Champions League return with a confident victory over Malmo away from home.

Alex Sandro opened the scoring with a diving header, and the striking duo of Paulo Dybala and Alvaro Morata both scored to make it 3-0 before half time.

The Bianconeri almost added to their lead in the second period – especially with the introduction of Moise Kean – but the final whistle confirmed the same score-line.

The manager was undoubtedly relieved following the positive start of his European campaign, with fixtures against Chelsea and Zenit on the horizon.

The Livorno native spoke to the press after the match, and admitted that his team felt some pressure following their sloppy start of the season.

“When you play in the Champions League, there is always some tension in the build-up, especially when playing away from home and there was naturally a little more pressure after three Serie A games in which we didn’t do that well,” Allegri told Sport Mediaset as translated by Football Italia.

“The lads played well on a technical level, we could’ve done better with some situations in the first half. We need to improve, but this doesn’t change the work we started on July 14.

“Results affect the way your work is judged, but we must do well to retain a balance both in defeat and above all in success.”

The manager was told that this was Juve’s first clean sheet since March 2.

“That is a  positive sign too. I told the lads at half-time to end the game without conceding, as it takes away some anxiety. Szczesny did well today, it was important to get this victory, otherwise the winless streak was going to get a bit too long!

“The psychological aspect is 90 per cent of sport, because when you make individual errors like we did so far this season, it makes us see things negatively.

“I told the lads, when we had the chase back to win the Scudetto, we lost to Sassuolo after wasting about eight chances, but in the second half of the season we beat Sassuolo completely against the run of play. That was not a great Juve performance by any means, we played better the first time, but the result makes you see things differently.”

Next up for Juventus is a weekend battle against Allegri’s old employers, AC Milan.

“Milan are very strong and going through a period of great enthusiasm, so it’s motivating for us to know it’s an important match.”