Juventus win their fourteenth Coppa Italia title, defeating Atalanta 2-1 in a closely contested final
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Juventus win their fourteenth Coppa Italia title, defeating Atalanta 2-1 in a closely contested final
Juventus trumped Atalanta 2-1 in the Coppa Italia Final to clinch their fourteenth Cup title, which is also their second silverware this season.
Andrea Pirlo and his Juventus’ desperation for some success this season came to fruition, when Ronaldo and co defeated Atalanta Bergamo 2-1 in the Coppa Italia Final. This victory means that the Old Lady of Italy have now won the Coppa Italia 14 times, five more than any other side.
Dejan Kulusevkski, Federico Chiesa scored as Juventus beat Atalanta 2-1 on Wednesday to win the Coppa Italia title
Both sides went into the match with much to play for, with Juventus desperate to secure a silverware to make some amends to conclude a disastrous season which saw them losing their Serie A crown to rivals Inter Milan after nine seasons. Juventus currently sit 5th in the Serie A standings and are on the verge of missing out on a Champions League spot for the next season.
Looking to brush the disappointment of the last meeting between the two sides, Juventus made only two changes to the side that won against newly crowned champions Inter Milan earlier this week, with veteran goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon getting the nod ahead of Szczesny and Weston Mckennie making his cut into the team for the finals.
However, it was Atalanta who made a bright start to the game and game Juventus much to think about. While Juventus had done very little in the opening 30 minutes of action, it was them who broke the deadlock eventually, much against the run of play. Juventus got the much-important lead in the 31st-minute of the game when Dejan Kulusevkski found the back of the net. It was a brilliant left-footed curler that beat Pierluigi Gollini who could only watch the ball go past him.
Atalanta, looking to win their first Italian Cup since 1963, deservedly levelled through Ruslan Malinovskiy four minutes before the break. Hateboer found Malinovskiy in acres of space on the edge of the box, who takes a touch to bring the ball on to his left foot before hammering his effort through a crowd of players and past Buffon to draw things level.
Cristiano Ronaldo showed some wizardry and created an opportunity for Federico Chiesa in the 59th-minute of the game, but that hit the bar and denied Juventus the lead. Pirlo’s side stepped it up even more and Chiesa finally fired home his 13th goal in all competitions this season in the 73rd minute. Chiesa starts the move by cutting in from the left flank and rolling a pass to Kulusevski who played a sublime pass towards his run into the left-inside channel, and Chiesa takes a great first touch before slotting his effort into the bottom-left corner.
The match turned into turmoil in the final minutes as the referee had to show four yellow cards and a red card to the Atlanta players, in a show of helplessness and desperation.
With this victory, which was also his first Coppa Italia title since joining Juventus, Cristiano Ronaldo has now won every major competition he’s played in for Man United, Real Madrid and Juventus.
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Sayantan Dutta
(266 Articles Published)