“With this Juve it is difficult for everyone. Ronaldo? I needed him for Saturday.”

MILAN – satisfied Andrea Pirlo after the comeback against Inter in the first leg of the Coppa Italia semifinals against Inter. His Juve beat San Siro 2-1 thanks to a double by Cristiano Ronaldo and are in favorable conditions for the second leg at the Allianz Stadium. And with this success you also get one rematch after loss in the league: “That had been an empty step, it was not us in that game. Since then we have come together and other victories have come. Tonight was the first round, we haven’t done anything yet, we look forward to next week“.

Pirlo and the replacement of Ronaldo

This victory also allows us to improve from the point of view of own media awareness of the team: “We know that if we are focused and have this kind of attitude it becomes difficult for everyone. We know our strength, we must always play it, even if it is not easy to play every three days. If we continue like this we can do it well ”. About Ronaldo’s reaction at the time of substitution: “It is normal that when you go out to a match like this you want to continue helping your teammates, but we also have to think about the championship and on Saturday we have an important challenge. It was okay to get it out at the time“.

The coach then smiled when asked if there is a contract to always see CR7 on the field: “No, without a contract, he knows well that he is a fundamental point of the team, but sometimes he can also catch his breath. With so many close commitments, you should always be on top. It couldn’t get any better than that. What did we say? Who had to come back because we have an important challenge on Saturday, is playing many games in a row. Sometimes a little rest is good for him too.“.

The turning point in the Super Cup

Pirlo explains his training options: “We prepared it well, the boys were convinced that they were playing these kinds of games, so if you play one or the other, nothing changes. We have a squad full of champions. If you play Bonucci or Demiral, it shouldn’t affect us. We went down, but we kept playing with a great team reaction. I have to congratulate the boys. If in the second half we lowered the center of gravity a bit, it’s thanks to Inter and the fact that they had to recover the result. We have lowered ourselves a bit but it is normal not to maintain that rhythm in pressure for 90 minutes. We have always been organized, we have maintained the field well and when you do it it becomes difficult to even suffer. Bentancur? He played a good game, remember that he has a hole in his foot and is trying to grit his teeth. He will be disqualified on Saturday but at least he can regain some energy and fix his foot.“What made the difference for the coach was the victory in Super Cup against Naples: “Yes, a fundamental race, which has revived us. Seeing a glass lift has given us great strength. Inside us he made us understand that we are still strong and we can compete in all the objectives and we started again.“. In conclusion Pirlo spoke about the next matches:”The difficult cycle started in September, we always played every three days, now many challenges at the top, the Champions League match. But we must always think one game at a time and see where we will be at the end of the season.“.