On Sunday, Juventus earned what they were seeking in Spezia. While the performance left much to be desired, the Bianconeri went back to Turin with three points and another clean sheet. Moise Kean broke the deadlock in the first half, while Angel Di Maria came off the bench to seal the win with a second goal.
Therefore, you can always expect Max Allegri to be satisfied on the back of such result. The manager heaped praise on the performances of Di Maria and Mattia Perin. The latter made two incredible saves late in the match to deny Emmanuel Gyasi and Dimitrios Nikolaou.
“My newborn grandson has already written me a message, he’s happy because we won 2-0,” said the manager jokingly in his post-match interview as reported by la Gazzetta dello Sport.
“Angel gives the whole team more serenity, he’s extraordinary with the ball. Sometimes we are in a hurry but we have to be much calmer because the qualities are there.
“Have you ever seen champions playing football while being agitated or hysterical with the ball in their feet? Never, and I’ve been lucky enough to train a few.
“We had a bad first half, then in the second we got off to a good start and we could have doubled the lead through Kean.
“It must be said that we suffered more shots tonight than on Thursday [against Nantes]. But congratulations to Perin, who made an extraordinary save on Gyasi.
“The second leg on Thursday is a like final. We know we have an excellent chance of going through, but it won’t be easy.”
Moreover, Allegri noted that Dusan Vlahovic and Kean are still working to improve their chemistry since they haven’t played side-by-side in a while. He also emphasizes the importance of Leonardo Bonucci for the team.
“It was the first time Kean and Vlahovic play together, so it wasn’t easy. We had prepared the match to attack deeply, which is something we lacked.
“But then Kean scored a goal and Vlahovic also worked well for the team.”
“It was good for Leo to return with a victory. He is the captain of the team, he is recovering, for this season finale you need to have everyone available.”
