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Pirlo finds faults with ‘timid’ Juventus despite big win against Udinese

Andrea Pirlo - Juventus
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The champions convincingly got back to winning ways in their opening game of 2021 after having fallen flat in their final game of 2020.

Andrea Pirlo is not entirely satisfied with Juventus’ 4-1 victory against Udinese saying that he noticed his players were still ‘feeling the fear’ after the 3-0 defeat to Fiorentina.

Cristiano Ronaldo hit a double to take his goal tally in the league to 13 and surpass Romelu Lukaku as the Serie A top scorer of the season.

Sandwiched between Ronaldo’s goals was a strike from Federico Chiesa while Dybala also found the net late on.

The scoreline indicates total domination by Juve but it was not exactly so as Udinese were unlucky to hit the woodwork twice while also had a goal controversially disallowed early in the match.

“It wasn’t the best Juventus, as we were coming off a bad defeat to Fiorentina, so started quite timid and nervous, especially when their forwards ran towards us. We gained more confidence as it went on,” Pirlo told DAZN after the match, via Goal.

“I was not satisfied with the initial approach to the game, as we were still feeling the fear of our last defeat to Fiorentina. The timing of the movements weren’t right, especially on the wings.

“We knew that Udinese would try to sit back, counter, and wait for our mistakes, but we did well with the preventative marking to ensure they couldn’t do that.”

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