Juventus on Monday had to keep it cool as they patiently awaited an opener in their late home win against Hellas Verona in Serie A, a conduct coach Thiago Motta appreciated from his players.
Misfiring Juventus earned a 2-0 victory thanks to late goals from Khephren Thuram and Teun Koopmeiners, despite creating nearly 30 chances throughout the game and fully dominating their opponents.
“The way we got to the three points was important and it wasn’t easy,” Motta told DAZN. “Being calm means waiting and playing football. It’s not easy because after the elimination [from the Coppa Italia] the atmosphere was particular, and you could have an extra desire and anxiety to do things [right].”
Photo: Reuters
“When it’s like that you leave counterattacks, and instead we didn’t give our opponents that opportunity. In the second half we could have scored even more than the two goals. The boys deserved it and have a lot of quality,” he said.
Juve suffered a shock exit from the Coppa last week when they were beaten 4-2 on penalties by Empoli in the quarter-finals after the match ended in a 1-1 draw.
“In the last [cup] match we got our attitude wrong in the first half, but we are always very demanding with ourselves, we want to do better and that’s the secret,” Motta said. “We have to look for something to improve every day. Today we had a great performance, but that’s part of the past.”
The Italian-Brazilian coach had words of courage for goalscorer Koopmeiners, who found the back of the net for the first time since the beginning of December last year.
“Koopmeiners did well and I’m very happy for him, he’s a special guy,” Motta said
“He has a great mentality, it’s a privilege for us to have him. He has to be convinced, confident and accept criticism. He’s doing well and he’ll give us a lot,” he added.
The 27-year-old Netherlands international, who joined Juventus from Atalanta BC for a reported fee of 55 million euros (US$58 million) in August last year, scored his second Serie A goal for the Turin side.
Fourth-placed Juventus host Atalanta, in third place, on Sunday, with three points separating the sides.
TO THE TOP: After securing the international title on Saturday, Team Taiwan were to face Las Vegas to potentially win their 18th Little League World Series championship A team from Taipei’s Dong Yuan Elementary School won the Little League Baseball World Series’ international title on Saturday by defeating Aruba 1-0 in the annual baseball tournament held in South Williamsport, Pennsylvania. The Taiwan team, competing under the name Chinese Taipei, were after press time last night to face a team from Las Vegas, Nevada, which beat a team from Fairfield, Connecticut, in the US championship 8-2. Taiwan are seeking to win their first Little League Baseball World Series title since 1996. “Really haven’t taken a moment to data dump right now on Taiwan,” Nevada manager T.J. Fescher said. “They’re a
Marc Marquez continued his winning streak as he cruised to victory in the Hungarian GP sprint by two seconds on Saturday night to pad his championship lead. It was a seventh straight Sprint victory for the Spaniard, who has also won the last six longer Sunday grand prix races on his factory Ducati. Fabio Di Giannantonio, an Italian with the VR46 Ducati satellite team was a distant second at Balaton Park, followed by his team-mate and compatriot Franco Morbidelli third. Marquez, a six-time world champion, started the race from pole position. “I felt someone really close on the first corner, from there I
Former European champions Celtic exited the UEFA Champions League in the qualifiers after a 3-2 penalty shoot-out defeat at Kazakhstan’s Kairat Almaty on Tuesday, following two goalless legs in the playoff tie. Kairat are to compete in the competition proper for the first time, while Norway’s Bodo/Glimt and Cyprus’s Pafos also secured debut appearances after coming through the playoffs. Celtic’s night ended in disappointment as they missed three penalties in the shoot-out, Daizen Maeda failing with the decisive spot-kick. The slugfest of a match went into extra-time with neither side finding the net and few overall chances, echoing the first
Russian Diana Shnaider continued her impressive winning streak in tour-level finals at the Monterrey Open on Saturday, beating compatriot Ekaterina Alexandrova 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 in the WTA 500 event’s final. Shnaider had little trouble in the opening set but struggled in a topsy-turvy second, as Alexandrova clinched the set’s fifth and decisive break at 5-4 to force a decider. Third-seed Shnaider carved out an advantage early on in the third set when she broke Alexandrova in the first game and held serve to go 2-0 up, an advantage she would not relinquish. World No. 12 Shnaider is now unbeaten in her last five
RSS