Thiago Motta says he has an "extraordinary relationship" with Dusan Vlahovic after he proved Juventus' match-winner against Cagliari. (More Football News)
The Serbia striker made it 50 goal involvements in 95 Seꦚrie A appearances for Juve with a 12th-minute winner in a 1-0 triumph at Sardeg🅰na Arena on Sunday.
It was Vlahovic's first Juve start since January 29 but Juve boss Motta hailed the impact of the striker, who was thwarted o🐈n a couple of other occasions as Juve racked up a fourth straight league win.
"He plays because he des💜erves it. We have an extraordinary relationship. He has a strong character and mentality," he told DAZN.
"Today, he showed great professionalism and helps his teammate🃏s. It’s easy to manage a champion like him."
Motta, though, was not altogether enamoured by Juve's fi✱nishing on the whole, with his side racking up a series of missed chances, particularly in a dominant first♛ half.
"We had so many chances in the first half, we went into the break knowing that it wou🐟ld be a problem not finishing it off and inevitably we then suffered," Motta added.
"We lacked a bit of clarity in the second half, we suffered without conceding much, but without dominating like in the first half. C♋agliari took over the pitch, and we can't allow our opponents to do all that."
Juveඣ were dumped out of the🌜 Champions League in the play-off round by PSV in midweek but are now into the top four in Serie A and eight points adrift of leaders Inter.
Motta says his sid🐼e will just taꦺke things one game at a time as they try to belatedly muscle in on the title picture.
"We have to take it one game at a time, especially now that we are get🔥ting into the crunch period of the season," added Motta.
"It is a very balanced league and we’ve seen the top teams strug♈gle this weekend too."ꦉ;
