Juventus had to work hard for a
precious 2-1 home win over Sporting Lisbon in the Champions
League on Wednesday, while AS Roma impressed in a 3-3 draw at
Chelsea.
Juve are second in Group D with six points from three games,
three behind leaders Barcelona, after a Miralem Pjanic free-kick
canceled out an Alex Sandro own goal and Mario Mandzukic scored
a late winner.
"I'm happy about the result, less so about the performance,"
Juve coach Massimiliano Allegri said.
"Sometimes looking at the points doesn't give you the full
picture of a match.
"If you look at our recent performances, perhaps tonight's
was the poorest.
"But we only picked up one point from our two previous games
(in Serie A).
"We're not in fantastic form at the moment. We've had
injuries, with players coming back having not played for a
while.
"Then there are a couple of lads that came back from their
international duty not in the best shape".
Roma did not lose their heads after going 2-0 down in the
early stages at Stamford Bridge and were unlucky not to notch a
memorable victory.
Aleksandar Kolarov pulled one back and then Edin Dzeko struck
twice to put the visitors in front, before Eden Hazard completed
a double to earn the London side a draw.
Chelsea lead Group C with seven points, while Roma are second
with five and Atletico Madrid are third with two after a
surprise goalless draw at Qarabag.
"Dzeko is born to score these goals," said Roma coach Eusebio
Di Francesco.
"He has undoubted quality and he's been too often criticised,
unfairly too. Beyond the goals he scored, I'd also point out the
help he gave to his team-mates - that's something that made a
difference.
"We were naïve at times when we played the ball.
"I'm thinking more in terms of our ideas - they weren't
technical mistakes.
"We made errors which led to the first goals, in the
decisions we made, for instance when the full back looks for the
one-two on the inside, rather than on the outside.
"But watching the game, we created a great deal and we did so
with quality.
"I'm truly satisfied with the performance. There's a bit of
regret because when you perform like this in games of this kind,
you need to take the result home".
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