Allegri excited about Inter Milan clash with Juve

Massimiliano Allegri is focusing on defending second place in the Serie A table during

' upcoming match against Inter, despite the club's 15-point deduction for financial irregularities.

Although Juventus currently sits seventh in the table, Allegri is not concerned about the deduction and sees the match against Inter as a fight for the runners-up spot. Juventus would be in second place if not for their penalty, but are currently 10 points behind fourth-placed Milan and 15 points behind leaders

.

"We go to San Siro to defend second place,"

Allegri told a press conference.

"I will repeat it until exhaustion. We are second with three points more than Inter, five ahead of Milan, four ahead of Lazio and six ahead of Roma.

"If at the end of the year the team net of penalties will be sixth or fifth in the standings, then it means that we will not have done well.

"We'll take stock at the end of the season. There are definitely positives. We've got five youngsters playing. We're still in the cups and need to get into the top four in the league. We also need to assess what we've done on the field."

Despite his focus on defending second place in the Serie A table, Allegri acknowledges that Sunday's match against Inter at San Siro will be a tough challenge. He is hoping for improvements from his team's performance in the Europa League on Thursday, where they secured a 2-0 win against Freiburg, who played with 10 men.

"The team must do better than the second half on Thursday night against Freiburg. We must be aware that we are going to play against a team that does well at home,"

Allegri said.

"We have to do our best – it's a tough challenge tomorrow. We need to try to come out on top in these contests with direct rivals. It'll be tough to close the gap in the league, but we must remember that on the field we've picked up 53 points."

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