Juventus manager says he had a "wonderful day" after beating Sporting CP and having their points reduction reversed
Juventus manager Massimiliano Allegri celebrated a “wonderful day” for the Old Lady after they overcame Sporting CP on aggregate in the UEFA Europa League quarterfinal on the same day they had a 15-point deduction in Serie A reversed.
Juventus reach semifinals after win over Sporting CP
Juventus’ first leg advantage after a 1-0 win in Turin was enough to see them past Sporting CP as they fought to a 1-1 draw in Lisbon in the second leg.
An early Adrien Rabiot goal was cancelled out on the night by Marcus Edwards’ penalty, but Juventus were able to weather the storm to see out a 2-1 win on aggregate to set up a semifinal encounter with Sevilla.
Speaking after securing qualification for the Europa League semifinals, Allegri hailed his players’ performance, saying, “It’s a wonderful day. It was a good performance, especially in the second half, but we must do better in our finishing.
“The lads behaved well and we were a little bit lucky too.”
Allegri happy for Serie A reversal
Allegri was also visibly happy about Juventus regaining points that were taken from them earlier in the season after the Plusvalenza scandal, where they were accused of falsifying their records to claim capital gains that they did not have.
Speaking on the decision to reinstate Juventus’ points, Allegri said, “This is a day where we get 15 points returned, now we need to dive back into Serie A, as we lost points too often recently. We must consolidate our position in the top four.”
Allegri had also said that he always knew Juventus had 59 points in Serie A, believing that the 15 points deducted would be restored to them.
“As far as we were concerned, we always had 59 points,” Allegri said, before continuing, “Now we just see on the table what we earned on the field.”
Juventus have now climbed to third on the Serie A table, in addition to making the semifinals of the Europa League, giving them a great chance of making the UEFA Champions League in the 2023/24 season.
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