Motta claims Juventus ‘lack character’ after AC Milan defeat | All Football

Juventus boss Thiago Motta criticized his side’s mentality after they were beaten by AC Milan in the Supercoppa Italiana semi-finals on Friday.

Motta’s team led for much of the contest after Kenan Yildiz’s strike in the first half but squandered their advantage in the second period, Christian Pulisic and Federico Gatti’s own goal doing the damage in the last 20 minutes.

This is the fourth time in eight games that Juve have taken the lead and not gone on to win, with Motta facing criticism in some quarters for his substitutes.

But the Italian was more inclined to question the character of his players.

He said: “We certainly can’t be happy with what we did, especially in the first half. In the second we also failed to convert chances to kill the game.

“Milan also did very little, so they shouldn’t have been able to win.

“All the choices I make during the game are for the good of the team, it’s up to you to decide if I did it right or not.

“We need to improve our character, because we were in control. Character comes into play when a negative event happens and you must be able to react. In the first negative event today, we did not react.”

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There is still a lot to achieve this season for Juventus, who are three points off the top four in Serie A and two points behind the automatic qualification places in the Champions League table.

They will be hoping to compete up front with Francisco Conceicao, who withdrew from the starting XI with a muscle injury.

Motta said: “We will evaluate him, he felt a twinge and was not able to start the game.

“He is an important player for us, in the second half we needed something extra and he could have given us that.

“We have players who work very hard and play a lot, we need to balance the playing time.”