Pirlo defends decision to rest Ronaldo
Juventus head coach Andrea Pirlo defended the decision to rest star forward Cristiano Ronaldo after his side was held to a 1-1 draw by Benevento in Serie A.
Pirlo revealed on the eve of Sunday's (AEDT) clash that Ronaldo would not make the trip to Ciro Vigorito as he was "a bit tired".
The Portugal international has played 14 times for club and country this season, scoring in eight of those matches, including Juventus's two games prior to this clash.
Juve struggled in Ronaldo's absence against Benevento as it scored from only one of its 16 attempts through Alvaro Morata's first-half strike, but that was cancelled out by Gaetano Letizia in first-half-stoppage-time.
Pirlo, though, was content with his big call to rest 35-year-old Ronaldo, which was a decision taken even though Juve is already through to the Round of 16 in the UEFA Champions League with two games to spare.
"He had a little problem on Wednesday and wanted to play in the [UEFA] Champions League anyway," Pirlo said.
"When you play for the national time it is normal to get tired and need a rest. This time is was Ronaldo's turn to be left out.
"It's a shame because he definitely adds value and he shows that in every match he plays. But we have to play our game even when he is not involved.
"He was tired and needed a rest, which is normal when you play lots of matches close together. We're hardly the only club in this situation."
Juve has won only one of its past nine Serie A away games and has conceded at least once in its past 10 such matches, stretching back into last season before Pirlo arrived.
The Bianconeri are three points adrift of AC Milan, which hosts Fiorentina in Monday's (AEDT) game in hand, and Pirlo acknowledged his side needs to learn to become more streetwise.
"We controlled the first half of the match and had chances to kill it off, but we haven't worked out how to read various moments of the match," he said.
"We had a corner on the stroke of half-time and took it quickly before they scored. We should have controlled the situation and held out until the break.
"It's not the first time we have conceded just before the interval.
"We are working on the development of the play. We have one more attacking winger, one who comes from deeper. At times it works, at others it doesn't."
Morata's well-taken strike makes it 11 goal involvements for the striker this season – eight goals and three assists – which is 48 per cent of Juve's overall tally of 23.
However, the Spain international was sent off at the full-time whistle for something he said to the officials in a match that saw six cards handed out in the final 10 minutes.
Pirlo accepted his side lacked the composure needed to find a way through Benevento after taking control of the match in the second half.
"At the end we got a bit chaotic and lost our cool," Pirlo said. "We didn't manage to turn the chances into goals.
"Unfortunately, when games get chaotic and messy we have to play clean football and take control of the match. Otherwise we struggle, as we did today and against Crotone.
"We've got to learn the moments of the game, when to kill it off and when to control the tempo."
Benevento has now taken four points from its past two games, after a run of four successive league defeats, and Pirlo's former team-mate Filippo Inzaghi felt his side could even have snatched a win.
"A few months ago we were fighting on muddy pitches in Serie B, now we are holding Juventus, and we could maybe have won it if we'd been a bit smarter on the counter," Inzaghi said.
"These lads deserve to enjoy this evening, they've done so well over the last 18 months. When you get a result against Juventus, one of the best teams in Europe, you need everything to go your way.
"You would think avoiding defeat to Juventus was practically impossible, but seeing them train over the last few days, I had an inkling we could do it. They will enjoy this, because it's the first time Benevento have got a result against Juventus."
