Agnelli blasts Juve players

Juventus president Andrea Agnelli blasted his players for the manner of their 2-0 defeat at lowly Lecce at the weekend, claiming they hadn't even worked up a sweat.

Juve were hampered by the early dismissal of goalkeeper and captain Gianluigi Buffon after just 12 minutes, although by then the Turin giants had already been living dangerously.

Lecce's Algeria midfielder Djamel Mesbah had skied a great chance and Buffon had already had to rush from his line to whip the ball away from David Di Michele, who would otherwise have been through on goal.

But the second time the former West Ham striker got in behind the defence, he beat Buffon to the ball with the Italy number one instinctively blocking his shot with his left hand, only to be shown a straight red card as he was outside the area.

With a numerical advantage, Lecce dominated and cruised to a 2-0 victory that could and indeed should have been far more comfortable.

And Agnelli was clearly not happy with the Juve players' efforts.

"Following three excellent performances there's a great sense of bitterness from the defeat to Lecce," he said.

"After the game the players didn't even need to take a shower.

"Both myself and the fans were very disappointed with the result and above all the performance.

"We played the same team that played (and beat) Inter Milan so there was no obvious reason to mess up this game.

"We need to improve and understand that we have to play every game at our maximum."

Juventus lie sixth in Serie A and seven points behind fourth-placed Lazio in the final Champions League qualification berth.

And Agnelli left his players in no doubt that he expects them to crack the top four, particularly following last season's disappointing seventh placed finish.

"We have 12 games left and we have to play every one with the mentality and conviction that we will win," he added.