“I told the lads we had two objectives today – to win the game and not concede”, said manager Max Allegri, talking to Sky Sport Italia.
Advertisement
For although Palermo scraped a 0-1 victory at Atalanta on Wednesday evening, they needed to wait until the 89-minute before Ilija Nestorovski netted the victor and that result marked their first triumph in five attempts this season.
It wasn’t an easy win for Juventus but in the end they got all 3 points.
The result marked the first time Palermo have lost their first three home games as Juve notched their ninth successive win over the Sicilians.
Asked about the Mandzukic-Higuain pairing, Allegri added: “If you ask me, they did well”.
“We have to make fewer mistakes and from a technical point of view, we were not good and made too many misplaced passes. It was the first time they played together”. A swift team move put Alves into a position to shoot, with Goldaniga inadvertently backheeling the ball beyond Posavec.
Paulo Dybala was rested in favour of a double centre-forward system with Gonzalo Higuain and Mario Mandzukic which seemed to throw Juve out of kilter – but Allegri defended his misfiring players.
Their next shot on goal didn’t come until 15 minutes later, Posavec parrying a crisp drive from Mandzukic from close range and the ‘keeper then somehow getting his hand to Mandzukic’s drive from eight yards out.
Napoli remain second, a point behind Juventus.
Advertisement
Manolo Gabbiadini and Marek Hamsik proved Napoli’s attack is not all about Arkadiusz Milik and Jose Callejon as they fired the Partenopei to victory. Slovakian global Hamsik, who is now only 15 short of equalling the all-time scorers’ record at the club, held by former icon Diego Maradona, said the focus is now on Europe.
