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Buffon: "Juve's first half was shameful"
Following their disappointing 1-0 defeat to Sassuolo on Wednesday, the players found themselves the subject of a long discussion in the Bianconeri dressing room, with Directors Giuseppe Marotta and Fabio Paratici present.
Immedaitely following the game, coach Massimiliano Allegri told the press that the team is on lockdown, the ritiro to be held until the Bianconeri’s key Saturday derby game against Torino.
Legendary goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon certainly didn't mince his words, either. Asked by a journalist whether Juve should abandon hope of defending its title, the former Parma shotstopper indicated that the team's current performances were no outlier.
“We got the first half completely wrong. I’m horrified, first and foremost because I’m captain of this team, but also because watching your team be dominated in the first half and not understand the importance of the game cuts deep.
“I blame myself because us big teams can’t tolerate this. We all need to go back to being humble and have our feet on the ground, because if you wear the Juve shirt, don’t work hard and don’t want to fight… we’ll end up looking even worse”.
“The club and the players need to show that we’re aware of where we are in the table. Two or three games can be a fluke, ten games are a trend. Since it is no longer a fluke, our approach to today’s game and our first half performance wasn’t worthy of the name”.
“Sometimes the numbers tell the truth, sometimes they don’t. What’s obvious after today is that in a game of prime importance our first half performance was shameful, we didn’t win an aerial battle, not to mention on the ground”.
“We need to complain to the refs a little less and be abit more humble about ourselves. We need to call ourselves into question because, even if refs get things wrong, they do it in good faith. You can’t hide behind a refereeing decision, or a mistake for that matter. In all my time at Juventus, I’ve never been accustomed to seeing this kind of behaviour”.
