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Juventus coach Andrea Pirlo lashed out at his players after their surprising 3-0 home loss to Fiorentina on Tuesday night, accusing them of “thinking about the holidays”.
The Turin team got off to a nightmarish start after Dusan Vlahovic scored the first goal in the opening minutes before Juan Cuadrado received an early bath with just 18 minutes to go, providing an uphill task for Juventus.
Cristiano Ronaldo and company were unable to provoke a change, and the visitors secured the three points after Alex Sandro’s last own goal, before Martín Cáceres scored against his former club to add shine to the scoreboard.
Juventus are expecting a 10th consecutive Scudetto this season after the club decided to fire Maurizio Sarri, who was not a popular figure in Turin, but the Italian was 11 points better at the same stage this time last year.
After the game, a furious Pirlo refused to blame his red card for the loss and believes that Fiorentina simply wanted to win more than his side, claiming that the players had their focus elsewhere.
“What happened with the red card cannot be used as an alibi,” he said, speaking to Sky Sport Italia. “The result was not due to the attitude of Fiorentina, but to the lack of ours.
‘When this is the case, you face bad situations like this. In games before Christmas it can happen that you have your mind set on the holidays. We were out of focus and couldn’t recover. ”
Cuadrado initially received a yellow card for his tackle on Gaetano Castrovilli, catching him in the shin, but after a VAR review, the referee updated it to a red card, and Pirlo admitted he had no qualms about the decision.
The images of the expulsion seem clear to me. There could have been some decisions in our favor, but that’s not something I want to comment on, you can see for yourself. ‘
It was a particularly bad night for center-back Leonardo Bonucci, often so dependable but possibly guilty of the night’s three goals. Pirlo, however, insisted that he still had faith in his employer.
“Everyone has bad nights like these,” he said. “So far he has done great performances.
‘It happens to everyone. He’s our captain and we still have a lot of faith in him. ‘
Juventus had been in good shape until this match, winning five of their last six, including an impressive victory over Barcelona.
But now they are in the race for the title after Italian authorities ruled that their 3-0 win over Napoli in October, lost by the Naples team after a COVID-19 outbreak, must now be repeated.
“We don’t mind playing again,” Pirlo added. “I am more disappointed by the other teams that have traveled and played without many more players that had Covid. Anyway, they showed great fairness in playing.
“I will not say if the decision was correct or not, but it did not seem fair to the other teams that continued and played in more difficult situations.”
Source: m.allfootballapp.com
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