Juventus coach Max Allegri defended Nicolo Fagioli after defeat to Sassuolo yesterday.

An error from Fagioli led to Gregoire Defrel's winner for Sassuolo at the Mapei stadium.

“We did not play well for an hour, then reacted after the slap in the face of the goal. It was an important game for the table, but it was a second consecutive defeat in Serie A, both away from home," Allegri told DAZN.

“We've got to get back on our feet, work on what we got wrong and take a different approach to the matches.

“We need to take it one game at a time. There are players like Federico Chiesa and Paul Pogba who are getting back into shape, while others have played a lot more and are fatigued. That is not an alibi, as we were distracted on the corners.

“It was better in the closing stages, but we had to rest players like Chiesa and Pogba. I saw improvements from Pogba, but he's still a long way behind schedule and not in condition to play 90 minutes. We'll try to slowly get him up to 30 minutes and see how he responds.

“All we can do now is stay quiet, work hard and drag out the last drops of energy to get past Sporting."

On Fagioli, he added: “Everyone makes mistakes, it was an error, but he is not responsible for the defeat. The whole team didn't play up to the right standard."