Juventus coach Massimiliano Allegri apologized for his team's big defeat against champions Chelsea in the Champions League last Tuesday, and called for an improvement in his team's performance before a crucial month in the club's career this season.

Juventus - the most successful team in the Italian league - has achieved disappointing results since Allegri returned to his training at the end of last season.

Currently, the Turin team is ranked eighth among the local league teams after 13 rounds, 11 points behind Napoli, the leader.

The team's conditions worsened with a 4-0 defeat against Chelsea, which was its worst defeat in all competitions since its 4-0 loss in the Italian league against Roma in February 2004.

And Allegri apologized - at a press conference today, Friday, before the local confrontation with his guest, Atlanta, on Saturday - for the "defeat in London" and said, "We are Juventus, and it is not right for us to leave a bad impression at this level."

He continued, "The team performed well in the first half. The match remained balanced until the 55th minute. Perhaps we performed better than our match in Turin (when we beat Chelsea with a clean goal) and we fell completely after their second goal."

And Allegri added, "Atlanta is a team with a lot of physical strength and they score a lot of goals, but their nets are also shaking. So we need to give a great performance in attack and defence. We have to be very precise."

Atalanta started the current season slowly, but its performance improved in recent weeks and regained its scoring touch to play 6 matches in the league unbeaten, and is currently ranked fourth.

Allegri plans even further as he seeks to turn things around in Turin.

"Tomorrow's match is important," Allegri said. "But it is not decisive, but we have an important month ahead. The next six matches are crucial."

He concluded, "The problem is that we did not do well against the smaller teams. The players felt some sadness after the defeat in London, but they trained very well yesterday."

He concluded, "We need to improve both individually and collectively. We should not look to the past. We have to start March in good shape. In March, a new season begins."