Allegri calls on Juve to be more clinical to seal top-four spot

Juventus coach Massimiliano Allegri said his team need to be more clinical in front of goal in order to make sure they seal a top-four finish in Serie A this season.

The Italian top flight's most successful team had dragged themselves back into the title race this season, having gone unbeaten since November in Serie A before last week's 1-0 home defeat to champions Inter Milan.

Juve had their chances in Turin last Sunday - 23 of them - but the loss leaves them eight points behind leaders AC Milan with seven games to go, a margin Allegri has insisted is too much to overhaul.

"Our target is to get on the top four. For now, we are there, but Roma are close," Allegri told a news conference on Friday ahead of his side's weekend trip to Cagliari.

"We played really well against Atalanta, Villarreal (in the Champions League) and Inter at home, but we were not clinical enough.

"We need to improve and be more decisive in those situations. I can understand errors in one or two games, but three is an important number and that's why we need to improve."

Allegri, who also confirmed veteran defender Leonardo Bonucci could return for the trip to Sardinia, is not expecting Saturday's match to be particularly pleasing on the eye.

"It's going to be very complicated," he added. "Cagliari suffered a bad loss at Udinese (last weekend). It's always hard to play in Cagliari. They are a physical team. I think it will be an ugly game technically and we must be aware of that.

"It's essential to winning. Roma are just five points behind us and many games are remaining. We must win games, that's the only thing we must think about. There are all the conditions to do well."

(Reporting by Peter Hall; Editing by Toby Davis)