Champions League news: Massimiliano Allegri insists Juventus' best game of the season was their loss against Manchester United
What's the story?
Juventus boss Massimiliano Allegri believes that the Old Lady's best game this season was their Champions League group stage loss against Manchester United, adding that it was even better than their second leg comeback against Atletico Madrid in the Round of 16.
In case you didn't know...
The Bianconeri may have predictably taken home their eighth consecutive Serie A title this season, but their campaign has not exactly been viewed as a 'grand success'.
Juventus have dominated the Italian top flight for almost a decade but have always came up short in Europe. Cristiano Ronaldo was meant to be the answer to their Champions League woes as he was signed last summer to primarily strengthen their challenge for the European title.
The former Real Madrid forward did go on to play a pivotal role in the club's Champions League journey this season, most notably in the second leg of their Round of 16 fixture against Atletico Madrid, during which he scored a spectacular hat-trick to single-handedly overturn their first-leg deficit over his old La Liga rivals.
The Serie A champions, however, crashed out of the competition after a shock defeat to Dutch giants Ajax in the quarter-final stage.
The heart of the matter
Speaking about the highlights of his time in the Champions League this season, Allegri said,
"Valencia, Manchester United, and Atletico Madrid in the Champions League were three great games. With Valencia, we went down to 10 men, and that was when the true Juve DNA came out, concentration, aggression.
"We wanted to prove that even after Cristiano Ronaldo was sent off, we could still win. Then against Manchester United, it was probably our best game, but nobody remembers it because we lost. We threw it away at the end, and that just shows you, that in football you don’t win if you only play 85 minutes."
He went on to say that the game against Manchester United was even better than their comeback against Atletico Madrid.
"It was better than our performance against Atletico because against the Spanish side we didn’t play as well, but we took all of our chances. In that match, we had nothing to lose and everything to win.
"Those were all different games, two of which we won and the other, which was our best performance of the season, we lost."
What's next?
Juventus are currently seeing off the remaining games of the season and are next scheduled to face Atalanta in the Serie A on Sunday.