Spalletti wants Juventus to enjoy 'living within the pressure'

  /  autty

Luciano Spalletti urged Juventus to "live within the pressure" and enjoy the tough moments after they fought from behind to snatch a 2-2 draw with Lazio.

Juve were 2-0 down early in the second half, with Pedro and Gustav Isaksen scoring on either side of the break to put Lazio in control.

However, Weston McKennie pulled one back just before the hour, before Pierre Kalulu netted a 96th-minute equaliser to ensure a share of the spoils.

Juve had 34 shots, accumulating 2.8 expected goals (xG), with eight of those on target, while Lazio only had nine attempts (1.2 xG), scoring with both on target.

Spalletti was delighted with the character Juventus showed to get back into the contest after the early setback in the second half.

"We have to live within pressure, that is the joy of football, when you have to overturn a 2-0 result at the start of the second half, when it wasn't what we had planned at all," Spalletti told DAZN Italia.

"That is when you test yourself and see if you can handle the tension at the top level; that is what we must relish, seeing if we deserve to be at this level or not.

"Character means when everything is going wrong, and you need a clear head to make choices. That's what makes the difference.

"This team overturned a very difficult situation, put in a great performance, so we go forward feeling reassured."

However, a worry for Spalletti will be that Juve have now made nine errors leading to goals in Serie A this season, the joint-highest total in the competition.

Manuel Locatelli had his pocket picked in the build-up to Lazio's opener, but Spalletti suggested the responsibility sits with him and his coaching staff.

"It is probably the fault of the demands we put upon these players," he said.

"In this period, I asked them to immediately play every ball that they win back, not to kick it away, so we must try to play our way out under pressure, and add more quality to our football.

"When you make that many requests, it means anticipating dangerous situations, seeing both the positive and negative potential of any scenario at the same time.

"Mistakes can happen. Locatelli has been one of our best players this season, so losing the ball once doesn't ruin anything. Even after that, there was the way we defended, how we closed down the shot, the bad luck of the deflection. That's football.

"What we must build on is the reaction of the team, the performance overall. We need to speed things up, but not be chaotic. Speeding up the tempo does not mean spilling over into chaos."

Juve sit fourth in Serie A, though they are 12 points back from leaders Inter, who they face on Saturday.

Related: Juventus Lazio Luciano Spalletti Locatelli
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