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October 24, 2024 - 3:00 pm

On Tuesday, Juventus suffered their first defeat of the season, falling short against Stuttgart on the third matchday of the Champions League group stage. The Bianconeri were expected to keep their perfect European campaign intact, but instead produced what was arguably their worst showing since the start of the season.
The Bundesliga side dominated the action at the Allianz Stadium and came extremely close to scoring on several occasions, but was denied by a sensational display between the sticks from Mattia Perin who even saved a spot-kick. However, El-Bilal Toure ended the 10-man Bianconeri’s resistance in added time with an unstoppable short-range shot.
Nevertheless, Juventus had a curious reaction to their first defeat, as Thiago Motta went for an unusual method, explains IlBianconero.
In Italian football, the clubs tend to book additional training sessions, or even retreats, following disappointing showings. However, Motta opted for quite the opposite. The 42-year-old organized a team dinner at Continassa after the defeat, allowing the players to bond and look each other in the eye rather than isolate.
Moreover, Juventus had a training session scheduled on Wednesday. However, the former Bologna manager decided to ditch it, thus giving his players the day off. As the source explains, Motta felt his men needed to take their minds off the game for a short while to reenergize themselves before Sunday’s big showdown against Inter at San Siro.
Juventus have now resumed training on Thursday morning, beginning their preparations for the weekend’s much-anticipated Derby d’Italia. It remains to be seen if Motta’s ploy will pay dividends, as the Bianconeri would loathe to suffer their first domestic defeat of the season straight after their initial European loss.
The Old Lady will be hoping to avoid this undesirable scenario, but Motta’s men will nonetheless face a daunting task, especially amidst their growing injury problems.

 
 
