Thiago Motta says Juventus not yet title contenders despite draw with champions Inter Milan
Juventus midfielder Kenan Yildiz (left) celebrating after scoring his team's late equaliser during the 4-4 Serie A draw against Inter Milan at the San Siro on Oct 27.
MILAN – Coach Thiago Motta acknowledged that Juventus are not in the Serie A title race just yet and emphasised the importance of maintaining focus on their growth after they secured a dramatic 4-4 draw with champions Inter Milan, thanks to two late goals on Oct 27.
With Juventus trailing 4-2, teenager Kenan Yildiz came off the bench and scored twice to rescue a point for his team.
Piotr Zielinski had opened the scoring for Inter with the first of his two penalties on 15 minutes, before Juve hit back with goals by Dusan Vlahovic and Timothy Weah midway through the first half.
But by the half-time whistle, Inter were ahead again, thanks to Zielinski’s second spot kick and a Henrikh Mkhitaryan strike. They extended their advantage to 4-2 eight minutes into the second half through Denzel Dumfries, before Yildiz’s late intervention.
Juve’s inability to dominate proceedings led Motta to acknowledge that his players were a long way off from challenging for the Scudetto.
“Not at this moment. We delivered a solid performance against one of the favourites for the Scudetto, alongside Napoli, who have maintained the core of their squad from a year and a half ago,” Motta told DAZN.
“Right now, they’re ahead and capable of competing until the end for the title. While today was a good performance, we need to keep our feet on the ground. We’ll continue on our path, sticking to our ideas and our growth process.”
Substitute Yildiz secured the draw after coming on in the 62nd minute, and Motta defended his decision to start with Weah rather than the 19-year-old.
“I chose Timothy Weah (to start) because he could offer something interesting for us in transitions. Kenan can help the team in the second half by providing different options, whether as a winger, midfielder, or striker,” Motta said.
“We know we have young players, but we believe we can perform much better than we did today. It’s clear that the many absences may have had an impact. It’s not an excuse, but a fact.”
His Inter counterpart Simone Inzaghi voiced his frustration, highlighting the missed opportunities and defensive errors that prevented his team from securing victory even though they dominated possession.
He told Sky Sports Italia: “It’s frustrating, as we were facing a Juventus side whose greatest strength is defence and we created so many scoring opportunities without winning.
“We lost our shape a bit, then on the fourth goal we made a series of mistakes. These compromised a match we clearly deserved to win...
“We have been conceding goals that are frankly unacceptable. We probably would’ve won this by quite a bit last season.”
Meanwhile, former Inter striker Mario Balotelli is set to return to Italian football with Genoa on a free transfer, the injury-hit Serie A club’s sporting director Marco Ottolini confirmed on Oct 27. REUTERS
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