Allegri set for lucrative new Juventus deal

Juventus coach Massimiliano Allegri is expected to be offered a new, lucrative deal in the coming days as the Italian giants look to lay the foundations for a future tilt at Champions League glory.

The report, in Gazzetta dello Sport, emerges two days after Juventus were eliminated from the last 16 of Europe's premier club competition after a dramatic, 4-2 second leg defeat to Bayern Munich.

It said Allegri, who will take charge of his 100th Juventus game away to Torino in the city derby on Sunday, will sign a new deal with an extra year on option worth "around 5m euros per year".

If confirmed, the former AC Milan coach -- who was recently linked to the manager's job at Chelsea -- could remain in Turin until 2019. No other details were mentioned in the report.

Allegri, who upset the formbook by steering Juve to last year's Champions League final and eventual defeat to Barcelona, has impressed club officials and fans alike since taking over from Antonio Conte in 2014.

While Conte steered the Bianconeri to three successive league titles and a Champions League quarter-final appearance, against Bayern in 2013, Allegri has raised the club's profile in Europe significantly.

In his first season in charge, Juventus won their fourth consecutive scudetto, their first league and Cup double in 20 years, claimed the Italian Super Cup and secured their first Champions League final appearance in 12 years.

After being outclassed by Barcelona last year, Juventus came agonisingly close to a second successive quarter-final appearance after stunning the Germans by taking a 2-0 lead on Wednesday.

Only Thomas Mueller's 90th minute leveller pushed the tie into extra-time and Bayern scored two late goals to win 4-2.

Juventus goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon believes the Italian champions have done enough in Europe over the past two campaigns to sit comfortably alongside the teams who are considered ranked just behind defending champions Barcelona.

Within two years, said Buffon, Juventus should be targeting another final.

"After Barcelona, we're right up there just behind them with three other teams at most," Buffon said at the Allianz Arena after defeat to Bayern on Wednesday.

"This year we had a difficult task, which was confirming our standing at the highest level in Europe. We lost out at the last-16, but we were right in this tie and that gave us so much belief and awareness of what we're capable of."

In 99 games at the helm so far, Allegri boasts 65 wins, 20 draws and 14 defeats -- several of which came at the start of the season as Juventus struggled after enduring several, key personnel changes during the summer.

At one point the champions were only a handful of points above the relegation zone, but Allegri has launched a spectacular salvage operation.

If Buffon remains unbeaten for the first four minutes of Sunday's fixture, he will become the new record-holder for minutes unbeaten in consecutive Serie A games.

Buffon last week took his tally to 926 minutes, in the process overtaking Dino Zoff's 903-minute tally. He is now just three minutes behind the all-time record of 929 minutes set by Sebastiano Rossi with AC Milan in 1994.
Source: AFP