Last night, Juventus secured their spot in the Europa League quarter-finals with a 2-0 win against Freiburg on German soil. The Bianconeri had already won the first leg at home thanks to Angel Di Maria’s header, so the final aggregate score showed 3-0.
Yet, Max Allegri wasn’t totally impressed with his team’s display. Following Manuel Gulde’s dismissal, the Bianconeri had a numerical advantage for an entire half, but seemed happy to coast around until the final whistle, only raising the tempo in the dying minutes.
The manager was visibly livid on the touchline, and after the match, he explained that he felt that his players didn’t truly pounce on their advantage, as they committed some needless mistakes.
“It was important to advance to the next round. We played well in the first half, but we need to improve when we have a numerical advantage,” admitted the Livorno native in his post-match interview as published by the official Juventus website.
“We need to make better choices, instead we created some difficulties for ourselves, and didn’t make life difficult for them despite being down to 10 players.
“I am happy for the win, but we can’t play a second half like this. We made so many mistakes, which is not good enough.”
A crunch battle awaits the Bianconeri this weekend, as they take on Inter in the Derby d’Italia before heading to the first international break of the year.
