Massimiliano Allegri was grateful after Alex Sandro s cynical red card helped Juventus to a 1-0 win over bottom-placed Hellas Verona on Thursday.
Moise Kean s strike with half an hour to play looked to be enough for Juve to make it five victories and five clean sheets in a row, but in injury time, a Thomas Henry throughball put Kevin Lasagna in on goal.
However, Sandro barged Lasagna over before the Verona forward reached the box and though the full-back was sent off, the resulting free-kick was skied over and Juve saw the game out to secure the three points.
Allegri was delighted after the match with his side s dogged performance and Sandro s unselfish decision to take Lasagna down, telling Sky Sport: Alex Sandro s red card is worth a goal.
He should not be fined but given a prize.
It certainly wasn t a great match on a technical level. In some situations we could have done better but it is an important sign for the team. We came through a tiring period and with players out, and luckily the changes helped us.
Allegri also spoke of his joy for Kean, who has now scored in three straight starts in all competitions after failing to hit the target in his previous seven, saying: If he played many games, he would score many goals.
For me he is very important and I m happy. It took a while to get out of the way to find space, he [Kean] and [Arkadiusz] Milik did it better in the second half.
5 Juventus have won and have not conceded a goal for five consecutive matches, the last time they reached such a run was December 2018, again with Massimiliano Allegri on the bench. Concreteness.
— OptaPaolo (@OptaPaolo)
Angel Di Maria continued his return from injury with a cameo and though he failed to make much of an impact, Allegri was understanding with the former Real Madrid man expected to be in Argentina s World Cup squad.
On a technical level, he did well. Angel managed the ball, Allegri added.
It s normal, there s a World Cup in a few days and you unconsciously leave something on the pitch. It s not wanted, but that s the way it is.
