John Elkann, first cousin of Juventus president Andrea Agnelli, believes that Massimiliano Allegri’s arrival at the Old Lady has given the club more confidence in Europe.
The Bianconeri will be facing Borussia Dortmund in their first leg round of 16 clash in Turin on Tuesday and the Italian businessman insists that the reigning Serie A champions have a good chance of advancing to the next round of the competition with Allegri at the helm of this talented squad.
Elkann spoke to La Gazzetta dello Sport about the positive attitude Allegri brought to Juventus and the quality possessed by the team, while also commenting on star midfielders Andrea Pirlo and Paul Pogba.
“Allegri joined Juventus with a great spirit and I think he deserves the credit for restoring confidence in this team when it comes to European competition,” said the 38-year-old.
“He has applied his international experience, which has benefited Juve as a whole, as now the team is much more confident when facing other European clubs.
“The match with Dortmund? Juve have a very strong team. I can only say that we have great players and this is a good place to start.
“Juventus have always managed to secure big results when the team had strong Italian components, as we do in this case.
“There is a nice group of Italian players in the squad along with many other talented players.
“After all, the strength of many winning teams is shown through their strong base of home-bred players from the same country and the insertion of their values.
“I cannot say if Pogba will remain here, but he is a very valuable player to Juve. I want to stress that Patrice Evra had been a very important for his growth, he remained close, gave his help and was his mentor.
“I must also give credit to Allegri for still using Pirlo as a decisive member of this team. I’m curious to see how Andrea will be remembered if he closes his career at Juve, especially after having spent so many years at AC Milan.
“It’s similar to the situation of Pippo Inzaghi, he spent a lot of time at Juve but now he is mainly associated with Milan.
“Pirlo is important, he always puts the ball exactly where he wants it to go, it’s perfect.”
