Pirlo shifts focus on Serie A after Champions League exit
Mar 10, 2021
Turin [Italy], March 10 : Juventus manager Andrea Pirlo has shifted his focus to Serie A after his side was knocked out of the Champions League.
Juventus crashed out of the Champions League as they lost to 10-man Porto on away goals despite winning the second leg 3-2. Porto had won the first leg 2-1 against Juventus.
"We made four mistakes over the two legs and in the last 16 of the Champions League that's a lot. Now we have to focus our thoughts on Serie A because it's only March and there's still time to climb back up the table. We made a decent start tonight then conceded a penalty, but we quickly pulled ourselves together and were in control in the second half, aided of course by being a man up," the club's official website quoted Pirlo as saying.
"We needed to stretch them as much as possible and we tried to do that without rushing things -- that's how we scored our goals. We'll have time to improve now and work on the things we didn't have the chance to do before with all the back-to-back games," he added.
During the match, Sergio Oliveira scored twice as Porto progressed on away goals after their round of 16 tie with Juventus ended 4-4 on aggregate. Oliveira's brace included a crucial extra-time goal while Federico Chiesa netted two goals and Adrien Rabiot registered one goal for Juventus.
In Serie A, Juventus currently hold the third spot with 52 points, 10 points behind the table-toppers Inter Milan. Pirlo's men are unbeaten in the last four matches of Serie A.
Juventus will next play against Cagliari on Sunday.
