Motta: Juventus struggled to impose their style of play against Stuttgart

Tuesday night brought something that Thiago Motta had yet to experience during his short time as Juventus’ manager: defeat.

Juventus were unable to extend their best-ever start to a Champions League campaign, falling to Stuttgart 1-0 at the Allianz Stadium in a game that felt much more than one-goal scoreline that was ultimately decided in second-half stoppage time when substitute El Bilal Touré broke the deadlock.

It was Juve’s first loss of the 2024-25 season, with Motta’s squad struggling for the second straight game after their slim 1-0 win over Lazio this past weekend.

“We have to accept the result, improve and recover,” Motta said after the loss to Stuttgart. “We couldn’t overcome the control of the game that they had. Often, in the first half, they avoided the initial press with their central defender, and we rarely had control of possession. Stuttgart are a difficult team to play against, we struggled to impose our style of play which is important to be able to compete against a strong team.

“We have to do better defensively than we did tonight, we have to improve a lot in the balance of the team. We have to put the defeat behind us and improve on what we can improve on and move forward.”

When it came to who deserved the win, there was only one answer for Motta.

“Stuttgart certainly deserved it,” Motta said, “they were better than us from the first minute. We must digest this defeat as quickly as possible, maybe a night and a day, then get back on our feet to prepare for Inter.”

Motta continued: “We suffered with their tempo today certainly and most of the time they had the initiative. We struggled to impose our style on the game. There are many things to analyse about Italian and international football, there are teams who want to keep the ball, press high and that gives you very little time to rest. This is the level. We struggled today, but we can certainly raise our level for the future matches.”

That will certainly have to be the case if Juventus want to come away from Sunday’s Derby d’Italia against Inter, the first time Motta will experience the country’s biggest match as an opponent to his former club.

One of the many areas in which Juve struggled against Stuttgart was defensively, allowing a total of 22 shots, nearly three times as many as they’re allowing on average in all competitions entering Tuesday night’s game. It was the second straight game in which they’ve allowed a Champions League opponent to attempt more than 20 shots, with RB Leipzig attempting 23 shots in Juve’s wild 3-2 comeback win three weeks ago.

Juventus goalkeeper Mattia Perin — who was starting due to Michele Di Gregorio being suspended following his red card against Leipzig — recorded nine saves, many of which were world-class stops to keep Stuttgart off the scoreboard, including his save from the penalty spot after a VAR review.

“A team has to defend well so it can recover the ball and then use it well,” Motta said. “We suffered out of possession, while the most we managed in attack were a few counters. I take responsibility for that, we must improve for the next games and that starts against Inter.

“We will try to improve what we can improve and keep working.”