Massimiliano Allegri Insists He Does Not Regret Resting Cristiano Ronaldo Despite Juventus Defeat

Massimiliano Allegri insisted that he did not regret resting Cristiano Ronaldo after Juventus crashed to a 2-0 defeat away to Genoa on Sunday.

The Bianconeri were on course for an unbeaten campaign in Serie A prior to their shock defeat at the Stadio Luigi Ferraris, as Allegri fielded a heavily rotated team following his side's midweek heroics in the Champions League.

Ronaldo was among the star names rested for Sunday's defeat, and Juve looked short of the Portuguese's attacking prowess after his hat-trick inspired the victory against Atletico Madrid on Tuesday. 

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However, as quoted by Calciomercato, Allegri stood by his decision to leave Ronaldo out of the team despite the defeat.

He said "Regretting not having taken him [Ronaldo] to Genoa? Absolutely not, on a day like this it was only to do with the result, even playing a bad game."

Allegri also admitted that losing Juventus' unbeaten status was disappointing, but insisted that Sunday's defeat can serve as a wake-up call and spur his side on to a stronger end to the season.

"It's not a tragedy, but I'm sorry because we wanted to remain unbeaten," Allegri added, via Juventus' official website. "The Champions League match [against Atletico] certainly weighed heavy [on us]. 

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"In the first half we risked conceding a goal twice, while we did better in the second, when they dropped a little bit, we conceded goals and suffered from the second straight after the restart.

"A defeat could've happened [at any time] and it is better that it happened today, now we will have time to rest, recover our energy and the injured players.

"You can't play all the games at your maximum. Today we knew we could have struggled and it may not have been a good game. I'm happy for him [Stefano Sturaro] though, because he suffered a lot and today he changed the game [with Genoa's first goal].

"The defeat can do us good, because maybe we thought we already had the league in our pockets and instead we still have to get five victories."