Manolas bullish about side's future despite setback

Mario Mandzukic scored the only goal of the game midway through the first half, as the Giallorossi pushed valiantly for a goal in the second half - without ever quite managing to test Juve goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny.

“We struggled in the first half," Manolas said. "Then we came out stronger after the break but weren't able to create many good chances to score.”

After the Plzen match you spoke about the need for courage and character. Do you think we saw that in the second half today?

“I'm happy with the way we responded but I'm not happy we're unable to fashion openings despite trying our hardest. It's a bit of a worry if we can't create chances.”

Do you think the forwards are afraid?

“I don't think they're afraid. Juventus are the best team in the world defensively – all 11 players stay tight as a unit so it's not easy to create chances against them. It's no coincidence they win every year. They're compact, they defend well and they produce the performances needed to win games.

“I think we played really well in the second period but we didn't threaten. There were three or four occasions where we should have exploited the opportunity better and shot from outside the box. If we keep playing as we did in the second half today, we'll soon get back to winning games regularly.”

There are lots of teams in contention for the Champions League spots. Do you feel the sides above you have nothing on you?

“At the moment they're ahead of us because we've dropped lots of points against the smaller teams. We were two goals up against Chievo and Cagliari and we ended up drawing. Those four points are the difference between us and fourth place.

"I'm sure we'll come through this negative spell, though. We have five or six players injured – players who are really important to this team like [Daniele] De Rossi, [Edin] Dzeko, [Diego] Perotti, [Stephan] El Shaarawy and [Lorenzo] Pellegrini – but I'm still confident we'll finish in the top four.”

What does it feel like to wear the captain's armband?

“It doesn't change anything for me. You have more responsibility when you're captain but you have to produce the performance whether you're wearing the armband or not.”