Maurizio Sarri lost his first match as Juventus manager on Suday when Premier League side Tottenham Hotspur pipped the Serie A club 3-2 in their first game of the pre-season International Champions Cup at the National Stadium Kalland, Singapore.
Gonzalo Higuain and Cristiano Ronaldo scored in the 56th and 60th minutes respectively to overturn Erik Lamela’s 31th minute curtain-raiser. Then Lucas Moura equalised for Spurs in the
the 65th minute, while Harry Kane scored the winner in the third minute of added time with a sublime rob from distance over Wojciech Szczesny.
Juventus new signing Adrien Rabiot who replaced Emre Can in the 46th minute made a hash of holding off Lucas Moura’s challenge and Kane pounced on the loose ball to score.
And Sarri attribute the Juventus defeat to a lack of poor defending up the field and poor physical condition of his players.
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“It was a difficult game, there is a difference between us in our physical preparation,” a disconsolate Sarri
told reporters after the game.
“Tottenham have players who have known each other for years and in the first half they seemed quicker, but it’s normal.
“If we want to show our football we must defend further forward. In the first half we weren’t high enough up the pitch, which made things difficult.
“In the second half we pressed better Coach
” We did some good things, even though we were naive with the Iost balls.
“But I think this is also affected by the level of physical conditioning.”
