Allegri admits fear of not winning, Spinazzola flags limits

Allegri did not hide the nerves that came with a narrow win. "The boys played a good match," he said. "It wasn't easy, there was always this half-fear of not getting a result." It was not the verdict of a coach who had just seen off a straightforward test, and it matched what happened on the pitch: a 1-0 decided by a single moment, not by control of the game.

Favasuli, who came on in the second half and set up Lobotka's winner, kept his feet on the ground. "I'm living a dream, but it's only a starting point," he said. Asked about his role models, he answered simply: "I have him at home, it's Di Lorenzo. Then I like Cancelo, and I used to like Zambrotta." Measured words from a player who, in twenty minutes on the pitch, had already changed the match — his performance made a stronger case than his own words did.

Lobotka allowed himself a laugh at his own expense over the goal that settled the contest. "I don't know what I was doing up there," he said, adding that he does not usually get into the box — "but there was nobody there" — and thanking Favasuli for the assist.

Spinazzola summed up the night without dressing it up. "It had to be won, fair means or foul," he said, before admitting a real shortcoming: "Sometimes we can manage the ball better" — a line that carries as much weight as the result itself, since it confirms the win owed more to the moment than to the football produced. He closed with a joke about his younger teammate: "On the way back he'll have to pay his dues."