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Alvaro Morata: I got lucky with Juventus' late winner

Alvaro Morata said he "got lucky" after he grabbed a late winner, with Cristiano Ronaldo also scoring, as Juventus qualified for the Champions League last 16 with a 2-1 victory over Ferencvaros yesterday morning (Singapore time).

Myrto Uzuni had given the Hungarian side a shock 19th-minute lead in the Group G clash in Turin.

But Ronaldo rifled in the equaliser on 35 minutes for his first Champions League goal this season, extending his record to 131 goals in the competition.

And Morata came off the bench to seal victory two minutes into injury time with his fifth group-stage goal this term.

"Today I think I was lucky on the goal, but no one remembers luck, everyone remembers the goal and that's it," said the Spaniard.

"It was a complicated game, that's how it is in the Champions League now."

Andrea Pirlo has achieved his first objective as Juventus coach having taken over from Maurizio Sarri after the Italian side crashed out of the Champions League in the last-16 stage to Lyon last season.

"Our goal was to start the match with a different attitude, but when you play these apparently simple games, you run into difficulties," said Pirlo.

"Our game was too slow. We didn't press hard. After many matches, it's also normal not to have the same intensity."

The Juve coach criticised big summer signing Arthur, saying: "He got a bit pig-headed today keeping hold of the ball and trying to find more direct through-balls when he should've spread it wide and tried to spread the Ferencvaros defence.

"He should've opened up the game more to create one-on-one situations." - AFP

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