Juventus: Allegri urges team to "stamp authority" on Serie A
Having progressed to the Champions League quarter-finals, Massimiliano Allegri now wants Juventus to turn up the heat on Napoli in Serie A.
Massimiliano Allegri has called for his Juventus team to take control of the race for the Scudetto after reaching the Champions League quarter-finals at the expense of Tottenham Hotspur.
The Bianconeri came from behind to beat Spurs 2-1 at Wembley on Wednesday and seal a 4-3 aggregate victory, securing a place in the draw for the last eight, which takes place on March 16.
Juve boss out to reel in Napoli after beating Spurs
Juve defeated Lazio 1-0 away from home last weekend, seizing on Napoli's 4-2 loss at home to Roma to close within one point of Maurizio Sarri's league leaders.
And with business taken care of for now in Europe, Allegri wants his players to exert their authority at home as they seek to win a seventh successive league title.
"It's obvious that you're going to have games that are really difficult, that are really tough," he said after watching Juve recover from a slow start to get past Mauricio Pochettino's team in north London.
"You used the word suffer, we did suffer a lot, but that's normal in football, we worked on our possession and that was important to us a great deal.
"Now we need to go back onto the training field and keep working… we are still one point behind Napoli, even after Saturday's win.
"We are really happy with tonight's result, but we have three games now before the international break, and I think those three games can really help us stamp our authority on the league."
"Anything can happen in the Champions League"
In addition to Serie A, Juve have also booked a Coppa Italia decider against AC Milan, and Allegri remains hopeful they can progress to the final of the Champions League, having lost at the same stage to Real Madrid in Cardiff in June.
"We're happy with what happened tonight, but we now need to go away and start thinking about our next game against Udinese in Serie A," he said.
"I think we are having a good season so far, we're in the final of the Coppa Italia, we're doing well in the league, and we're now through to the next round of the Champions League, and who knows, anything can happen in the Champions League."