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The coach admitted that his team was not focused ahead of the game, which was traded with an early red card to Juan Cuadrado.
Andrea Pirlo refused to blame the firing of Juan Cuadrado for Juventus’ big loss at home to Fiorentina, instead questioning the attitude of his players heading into the match.
Juve suffered their first Serie A loss to Pirlo in his thirteenth league game in office, losing 3-0 in what was also their biggest loss since moving to Allianz Stadium in 2011.
Cuadrado caught Gaetano Castrovilli on the shin and received a red card in his 200th appearance with the Turin giants, improved from a yellow card after a VAR control, with just 18 minutes left on the clock.
Dusan Vlahovic had given Fiorentina an early lead at the time and Juve were unable to respond, conceding again via Alex Sandro’s own goal and Martín Cáceres’ touch.
Juve had a pair of rejected penalty appeals in Tuesday’s game, the last one in 2020, but Pirlo admitted his team simply didn’t show up.
“What happened with the red card cannot be used as an alibi,” he said. 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 the games before Christmas it can happen, so you have your mind on the holidays. We were out of focus and couldn’t recover.
“The images of the expulsion seem clear to me. There might have been some decisions in our favor, but that’s not something I want to comment on, you can see for yourself.
Juve had more possession than Fiorentina (54 percent) and more shots (13-10), but eventually saw a 13-game unbeaten streak that came to an eerie halt.
Leonardo Bonucci in particular struggled – the experienced defender was possibly to blame for all three opposition goals.
He lost possession six times in total and won only half of his 10 games, but Pirlo was by his boss’s side at full time.
“Everyone has bad nights like these,” he said. “So far he has done great performances.
“It happens to everyone. He is our captain and we still have a lot of faith in him.”
Juve suffered something of a title double blow on Tuesday, the loss to Fiorentina coming hours after Napoli won their appeal against the abandoned October match between the teams.
The Bianconeri had scored a 3-0 victory after Napoli failed to show due to a travel ban imposed by local authorities after Piotr Zielinski, Eljif Elmas and a staff member tested positive for Covid-19.
But the Collegio di Garanzia dello Sport of the Italian National Olympic Committee, the country’s highest sports authority, ruled in favor of Napoli, meaning the game must be replayed in early 2021.
Therefore, Juve is three points worse, now seven adrift from leader Milan, and Pirlo questioned the fairness of the decision.
“We don’t mind playing again. I’m more disappointed by the other teams that have traveled and played without many more players that had Covid,” he said. “Anyway, they showed great fairness 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.”
