Allegri on the ropes

Massimiliano Allegri is suffering his worst moment since his return to Juventus last season. The Italian team fell against Benfica by 4 goals to 3, a match in which Allegri’s team could have received a bigger win.

The Italian coach managed to ‘make up’ last season with qualification for the Champions League, but this season everything is going downhill. The ‘bianchoneri’ only got 3 points in the group stage, they managed to beat Israeli Maccabi Haifa at Juventus Stadium but in the second leg the Israelis won 2-0. The Italian team needs to get something against PSG at home, because otherwise they will see Maccabi take their place in the Europa League.

After the Champions disaster, Allegri is Trending Topping on Twitter with the hashtag #AllegriOut, while the numbers from the Turin team encouraged Juventus and the coach in public. “This is a serious blow. Juve played at a very slow pace, even though they won. In the League he eventually won because he had better players than the rival. When they face equal or superior teams… this is the result”, declared Fabio Capello.

Another critic of the game was Alessandro del Piero, a historic striker for the Turin team. “It’s a bad game, except for the last 20 minutes. Benfica dominated the first half and more in the second. They had up to three clear chances to get the fifth. It’s true that Juve can do 4-4… but 4-3 is wrong.”

But in Serie A, they don’t improve either… Juventus Turin is eighth with 19 points from 11 games. After 5 wins, 4 losses and 2 draws, the ‘bianchoneros’ are 10 points behind the leader, Naples. So the coach’s situation is even more critical, and if they finally fail to improve in Serie A or enter the Europa League, Allegri may have hours in Turin.