Thiago Motta: ‘Juventus lack character, did not react to negative Milan incident’ | OneFootball

Thiago Motta admits Juventus ‘lack character’ after their collapse in the Supercoppa Italiana semi-final against Milan. ‘At the first negative incident, we did not react.’

The Bianconeri had seemed to be in complete control when Kenan Yildiz – who had not even been in the original starting XI, stepping in at the last minute for injured Francisco Conceicao – had blasted into the near top corner.

However, Milan turned it around with two goals in just four minutes, Christian Pulisic converting a penalty for the Manuel Locatelli foul and Federico Gatti deflecting in the Yunus Musah cross.

Juve seem simply incapable of holding on to a lead this season, so what is the problem?

“We certainly cannot be happy with what we did, especially in the first half, while in the second we also failed to convert chances to kill the game. Milan did very little too, so they should not have been able to win the game by doing just that,” Thiago Motta told Sport Mediaset.

Thiago Motta will come under fire for some of his choices in this semi-final, for example the fact Kenan Yildiz was originally on the bench until that Conceicao injury, but above all taking Dusan Vlahovic off after just 65 minutes.

They struggled to create any real scoring opportunities after that, with Nico Gonzalez as a makeshift centre-forward.

“All the choices I make during the match are for the good of the team, it is up to you to judge whether I did it right or not,” continued the coach.

Thiago Motta admits Juventus take a step backwards

RIYADH, SAUDI ARABIA – JANUARY 03: Dusan Vlahovic of Juventus is challenged by Malick Thiaw of AC Milan during the Italian Super Cup Semi-Final match between AC Milan and Juventus at Al Awwal Park on January 03, 2025 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. (Photo by Yasser Bakhsh/Getty Images)

When asked if this was a step backwards for Juventus, Thiago Motta confessed it was a heavy blow.

“This is an important defeat, yes, because it was a game where we had a very big opportunity to reach the Final. It is disappointing, I feel that we had a big, big chance to beat Milan and we were unable to do it.

“We need to improve our character, because we were in control, we created chances to kill the game and didn’t do it. Character comes into play when a negative incident happens and you must be able to react. At the first negative incident today, we did not react and wasted the opportunity to play in the Final, which for 70 minutes was entirely in our hands.”

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Juventus have drawn more games than they won so far this season, but this is only the second competitive defeat of the campaign.

“They are different situations, although the most recent draw with Fiorentina was fairly similar, as we had taken the lead and were in control there too. In other matches we went behind and proved we had the character to get back in and even try to win it,” argued Motta.

“Today we took the lead, were better than our opponents in many ways, but with very little effort, our opponents managed to turn it around. Negative incidents happen, but we did not react the right way.”

Francisco Conceicao was originally named in the starting XI and pulled out in the warm-up with a muscular issue.

“We will evaluate him, he felt a twinge and was not able to start the match. He is an important player for us, in the second half we needed something extra and he could’ve given us that. We have players who are working very hard and playing a lot, we need to balance out the playing time,” concluded Motta.