It must not have been easy for Andrea Pirlo talking to the press on Sunday afternoon as Juventus collected their fifth Serie A loss this season – the second in three weeks – but the coach decided to see the glass half full in his remarks after the game with Atalanta:
“We played a good game against a strong team but then episodes went in their favor towards the end of the match. We played the game as we were supposed to, we interpreted it in the right way, with much intensity and aggressiveness. It is disappointing because we could bring home at least one point,” was Pirlo’s opening remark.
“We knew it was going to be complicated because Atalanta force your players to go one-on-one, still we covered the field well. We had our chances today, but we didn’t finalized them and we were punished by a single episode.”
Despite the shocking loss, which resulted in Atalanta snatching the third place in the Serie A table out of the Bianconeri‘s hands, Pirlo appeared confident also with regard to the remaining games of the season:
“We still have seven games to play. We’ll have to win as many as possible to try to get the best spot in the table. We need to think about ourselves but if we play with the same spirit and commitment as today I am sure there won’t be any problem for the rest of the season.”
Pirlo was also asked about Paulo Dybala’s performance, as well as Cristiano Ronaldo’s absence, but his remarks were quite neutral on the topic:
“Dybala played a good game, he did well while he was on the pitch but he still couldn’t play for 90 minutes. Ronaldo couldn’t make it even to the bench and Chiesa and Danilo also had had some problems during the week.“