Alisson: We're moving in the right direction

The Brazil international added another clean sheet to his tally - but the Giallorossi still need a positive result next week against Sassuolo to guarantee they finish third.

The defence was one of the team's strengths this season...

"We improved compared to last year in this respect. We worked hard every day alongside the technical staff, making sure that we got better. We know that, in Italy in particular, it's the team which concedes the least goals that has the best chance of winning, and we did some good work from that point of view.

"All the defenders, along with the other players, did a good job, but now we need to have the hunger to improve even more."

Now it's on to Sassuolo to nail down third place.

"We've qualified for the Champions League, now we want third place: we're ahead at the moment but we'll go to Reggio Emilia looking to win and take the spot for ourselves. We've done well away from home in Serie A this year, a pity that we didn't always do our best at home. It was the opposite of the Champions League, where we showed what we can do in front of our own fans."

Give your appraisal of the team's season: what was missing?

"We were missing a little something extra at times up front, in the ability to create scoring opportunities in the league. We drew or lost sometimes because we were wasteful in the final third, but this isn't just down to the strikers: it was a problem for the whole team. Every one of us has to work on getting better in that respect.

"In order to win in the league you have to be perfect in every phase of play. Juve did that this year, playing well in attack and in defence. We have to continue on the road we're on, because we're headed in the right direction."

When Di Francesco told you at the start of the year that he wanted a high defensive line and a lot of pressing, how did you all take it?

"This philosophy clearly brought us results on the pitch; our defence is always at its best when we all work together, pushing high up the pitch and pressing attackers. I'm part of it too, getting up and lending a hand. We need to make sure we keep our positioning right so we don't expose ourselves to dangerous counter-attacks. I think this approach of pressing teams in their own half of the pitch is a real strength to our side: today for example we were able to get the ball off them around 15 times in their own half, and that's how we can really hurt our rivals and create chances."

Which was your favourite save? And the best game the team played?

"I made a lot of them, but the one which comes to mind now was the save I made against Pjanic in the first game against Juve in Turin: he shot from outside the box, and I was able to turn the ball away and onto the post. That was a difficult save for me, and a good one. Our best game of the season was certainly the one against Barcelona: that's definitely the one we should take as an example to learn from."