Juventus head coach, Maurizio Sarri lamented his team’s “total blackout” after the Serie A leaders capitulated in their shock 4-2 defeat to rivals Milan.
Juve appeared on track for a routine win at San Siro, where two goals in the space of six minutes from Adrien Rabiot and Cristiano Ronaldo gave the defending champions a 2-0 lead through 53 minutes.
However, Milan turned Tuesday’s match on its head, scoring three goals in five minutes to take a 3-2 lead before Ante Rebic sealed the incredible comeback with 10 minutes remaining.
Sarri told DAZN as he discussed Juve’s collapse saying, “I think our first 60 minutes were world-class. We were in total control and had this blackout”.
“There’s not even much use thinking too much about it, because we have another game in three days.
“We had a total blackout for 15 minutes. It has happened to other teams in this period. We have to take the positives from the game, which are that we were in total control for an hour.
“It’s usually not even possible to find the reasons for these inexplicable blackouts”, he said.
Sarri, who was without suspended pair, Paulo Dybala and Matthijs de Ligt, added: “We had some bad performances and quite rightly lost them, but this is not the case now. We played well this evening.
“I’ve seen many other teams have similar blackouts lately because it’s an unusual situation to be playing and training in these temperatures, with so many games, close together.
“Sitting here trying to over-analyse it or put ourselves on trial could be counter-productive and make us lose all the good work we’ve done so far.
“It’s completely different from the defeats against Verona and Napoli, so we have to focus on the next match.
“This is a team that has excellent football in its capabilities and that is what we need to build on.”
Despite the loss – which saw Juve concede four goals to Milan for the first time since 1989 – the Scudetto holders remain seven points clear atop the table with seven matches left to play. Challengers Lazio failed to make any inroads following their surprise 2-1 loss to lowly Lecce earlier on Tuesday.
Asked if Lazio’s result had made Juve complacent, Sarri replied: “I don’t think it made a difference, otherwise the initial approach would’ve been poor.
“Instead, we were focused for most of the match. I don’t even think we relaxed after going 2-0 up, it was the penalty that sparked the blackout.”
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