Thiago Motta acknowledged Juventus’ Champions League loss to Stuttgart as history, focusing instead on a win against Inter, whom he considers “favorites” for the title, Soccernet.football reports.
Juventus face the reigning Serie A champions in the Derby d’Italia at San Siro on Sunday. A victory will see the Old Lady leapfrog Inter in the league standings.
The Bianconeri are the only unbeaten team (W4 D4) after the first eight Serie A games this season. They will harbour some hope going into the tie as they have avoided defeat in six of their last seven matches against Inter.
The Nerazzurri finished last season with a 23-point gap over Juve in the table. Despite both teams being close in the current standings, Motta maintains that there is still a gap between them.
“It’s clear that the favourites to win the league are Napoli and Inter, they have won the last two Scudetti,” Motta said as per SuperSports.
“Tomorrow, we have to face Inter with focus and courage. They are a team that plays really good football, they created problems for many sides on the counter-attack.
“They’re a very dangerous side, they regroup quickly, when they get attacked they have a good defensive phase and are also very fast up front, we need to be careful.”
Motta leads Juventus into the encounter on the back of his first defeat since arriving in Turin. The Old Lady suffered a 1-0 loss on home turf to VFB Stuttgart in the Champions League.
Nevertheless, the former Bologna manager expressed no concern about his team’s performance, insisting that the defeat is already behind them.
“There’s no need to work on mentality, the guys are in good shape. Understandably, in an historic team like ours, the expectations are extremely high,” Motta said.
“It’s the first defeat that’s happened this season. Even when we win, we move on just the same.
“There’s no time to celebrate or dwell on a victory. The past is in the past; Stuttgart is behind us, and now we’re going to play Inter.”