Its coach rejects any sort of rigid style, preferring to mold his teams to their talent. But when things go bad, as they have in Turin, that lack of philosophy can leave a team to flounder.
The fairest way, perhaps, is simply to recount the story as Massimiliano Allegri told it, stripped of all interpretation and emphasis. It is not a long one. Earlier this month, a few minutes after Benfica had beaten his Juventus team in the Champions League, Allegri ran into Rui Costa — the Portuguese team’s president — in the corridors of the Allianz Stadium in Turin.