Juventus boss, Maximilliano Allegri has revealed why the Italian side crashed out of the Champions League to Ajax on Tuesday night.
Juventus stumbled out of the Champions League as they went down 2-1 at home to Ajax.
Allegri, explaining what went wrong with his team, said: “I’ve always said that to win the Champions League, you need to reach a certain stage in good form and with good fitness levels.
“We’ve been in a bit of an emergency situation for a while and that can only be sustained for so long.
“We were missing four or five players tonight. Daniele Rugani and Leonardo Bonucci had good games for 50 minutes or so, but we lost our unity and organisation, giving Ajax the advantage.”
Asked if the other players depended much on Ronaldo, he added, “No, absolutely not. Ronaldo has given us a lot over the course of the campaign, but when you reach the quarter-final, you need every player.
“When you reach the quarter-finals, it’s better to have as many options as possible, because these ties are decided by details, substitutions and options off the bench.
“We had a lot of players struggling with fitness issues and the two legs were only a week apart. We had a young player like Kean in the second half, but there’s a knock-on effect, as it allowed De Jong more time on the ball and Ajax took control.
“There are many young players in the squad who need to play and gain experience. Some might’ve paid at having two such big matches in the space of a week.
“We did well in the first half, less well after the break. The first leg was more balanced than this evening, of course.
“I was convinced we’d have a different second half, but that wasn’t the case. We have to tip our hats to Ajax and give them credit for an extraordinary second half performance.
“Let’s not forget, this team was in the Europa League Final a couple of years ago. Our problem was we split open and didn’t have the patience to play our game, considering the options we still had to come off the bench.
“We had done well in the first half, albeit a little too frenetic when we won back possession. Football is vicious, as you concede a fortuitous goal, the fear sets in, we got stretched out in the second half and should’ve had a different approach.
“Ajax fully deserved their result and qualification to the semi-finals.”
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