Max Allegri opts for tough-love approach after Juventus defeat in Madrid: 'To cry right now is useless'
Juventus came close to pulling off one of the most remarkable comebacks in the competition but were denied by a late Cristiano Ronaldo penalty
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Your support makes all the difference.Juventus manager Max Allegri said that crying now would be “useless” after being denied a sensational 3-0 Champions League comeback against Real Madrid by a controversial stoppage-time penalty, but did admit that it is “difficult to take”.
The Italian champions had come to the brink of what would been statistically the most improbable second-leg comeback in history – having headed into the second-leg of the quarter-final tie 3-0 down before going on to draw level at 3-3 – only for Real to be awarded a late penalty after Lucas Vazquez went down in the box.
Gigi Buffon was subsequently sent off for complaining as Cristiano Ronaldo converted from the spot to send Real into the semi-finals of the Champions League for an eighth successive year.
“To cry right now is useless,” Allegri said after the final whistle. “Unfortunately it went like that and Gigi had the reaction, which was understandable. I don’t know if it was his last game. There were three seconds to go, we’d come back and he had a human reaction.
“There was a lot of confusion. The ref thought it was a open and he gave it. We can’t do anything about it. We have a bitter taste as we also played well last week, despite the result. You need to understand that after a game like this to have a penalty awarded against you is difficult to take.
“I told [Sergio] Ramos it was a grey-area penalty. In the first leg we had a penalty in the 93rd minute that wasn’t awarded. Then there was the red card to Buffon which was hard to take.
“Both sides deserved to go through. It’s just not possible.”
Asked whether his side would have been aided by VAR, Allegri said: “Well, we’ve lost so there’s not a lot to say. That’s Uefa’s problem. I have always said VAR is a useful tool that can help make objective decisions... but we don’t have it here.”
Despite all that happened on Wednesday night, Real manager Zinedine Zidane meanwhile said that he never doubted his side would go through.
“I never thought we were out,” the manager said. “I only think positively. If we go out, we can deal with it then.”
Marcelo was even more convinced that his side would not suffer the same fate as Barcelona, who were overturned by Roma on Tuesday night. “What happened to Barca was never going to happen to us,” he said, with a wink, “because we’re Real Madrid.”
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