Juventus will not lose their focus on their Serie A title charge due to the upcoming Champions League semi-final clash against Ligue 1 giants AS Monaco, insisted manager Massimiliano Allegri.
The Bianonconeri are all set to face a tricky trip to Atalanta on Friday – with Gian Piero Gasperini’s in-form side not losing a game since December at home and are currently placed fifth in the Serie A table. Juventus are now keen on clinching their sixth straight league title and need eight more points to defend the title.
Allegri said: “We’re beginning an important period, but we still need points to get to the finish line in the league. On Sunday the team played a good match with Genoa, it was one of those games we had to win.”
“We’re coming off a period where we had difficult games like the ones with Barcelona, and [Atalanta] is a game where we need to win because as I’ve said before, Roma can get to 90 points and at the moment we need another eight.”
“We’ll see what Roma do afterwards. Atalanta are a team who are doing important things, they really have had an extraordinary season and compliments have to go to Gasperini and to the club, who have done really exemplary work.”
“They’ve improved in terms of their awareness of their means, as with everything the more results you get, the more time passes, the more you grow. They have good, top quality players and are led by a very good coach. “
“Playing in Bergamo has always been difficult, for them this is a step closer to Europe and for us it’s a step closer to the Scudetto.”
“They’ll fight to the end to get into Europe, so it will be a complicated game but we just need to take the points. To get to 91 points and be mathematically certain [of winning the league] we need eight. We’ll try to get three, then we’ll see.”
“At this point we’ve still won nothing, in the end only the facts count, words don’t matter much. So at the moment Juventus haven’t won anything, we haven’t won the Scudetto, we still need to play the Coppa Italia final and we haven’t yet reached the Champions League final. “
“We still need to go one step at a time. We need to bring home the title, it’s not over yet and there’s still a long way to go. Then we’ll think of the Champions League.”
Daniele Rugani will not be available for their trip to Bergamo and Juventus boss Allegri announced that Dani Alves, Leonardo Bonucci, Giorgio Chiellini and Alex Sandro will for the defensive line-up against Atalanta.