30 January 2019
Massimiliano Allegri admitted that his Juventus team had endured an off night after they were beaten 3-0 by Atalanta in the Coppa Italia quarter-finals. “It was in the air,” began Allegri after the game. “It was the same last year – we had a few near misses and then lost at home to Napoli. You get bad nights in football. I think we were probably a bit tired mentally.” Allegri was in no mood to exaggerate the magnitude of the defeat, however. “I can’t criticise the lads given everything they’ve done thus far,” he said. “We’ve had a bad night and we need to be able to react to that properly. It’s a shame because this is an important competition to us – the players are gutted. That said, you have to give credit to Atalanta.” The Juve coach went on to stress that Atalanta were simply the better side on the night. “Our opponents deserved to win – they had more energy and perhaps more mental strength,” said Allegri. “But as I’ve said, that’s football. If you react to them in the right way, these nights can do you good and help you to raise your level of focus. Obviously, that needs to start on Saturday with a win over Parma.”
