Juventus reached their sixth final of the Italian Cup of the last seven years after asserting the 1-2 advantage they achieved in the first leg of the semifinals against Inter. The rival of the ‘bianconeri’ on May 19 at the Olimpico in Rome will be the winner of the tie that Atalanta and Naples will decide tomorrow after the 0-0 registered at the Diego Armando Maradona stadium.
Inter, despite the losses due to suspension of the ex-Azulgrana Arturo Vidal and Alexis Sánchez, faced the Italian derby ready to score the goal that gave them hope of qualifying and was subjected to intense pressure for much of the first half.
Achraf and Barela push Inter
The incursions of a plethora of Achraf Hakimi on the right and the omnipresent Nicolò Barella were the great assets of an Antonio Conte who once again lined up Christian Eriksen as the starter in the Coppa, decisive with his goal in the discount in the quarter-finals derby against him Milan.
But Inter lacked success today in the auction, culminating its continuous approaches to the area, sometimes due to the numantine resistance of its central Matthijs de Ligt and Merih Demiral, which minimized the threat of Romelu Lukakau and left the veteran Gianluigi Buffon practically unpublished .
Lukaku and Lautaro, misguided
Inter had two good chances in a row in their best moments. In the 26th minute, Eriksen kicked a free kick and Lukaku narrowly deflected the ball with his body, which skimmed the post. And, three minutes later, Lautaro Martínez, the protagonist of a match to forget, included in his long list of mistakes by wrongly splicing a defensive rejection despite finding himself only with the only opposition from Buffon.
Juve managed to get away from the interior stress shortly before the break and their first clear chance came in the 41st minute with a left-foot low to the near post from Cristiano Ronaldo that Samir Handanovic took out.
Cristiano Ronaldo, frustrated by Handanovic
In the resumption, a shot with the intention of Achraf came very close to the goal (52 ‘), but Juve was able to go out with more assiduousness to the counter and Cristiano Ronaldo had three great chances to sentence the tie.
In the first the Portuguese shot high (59 ‘), in the second Handanovic came out of hand with a save (64’) and in the third CR7 he went between several rivals but the Slovenian again frustrated him by taking his whip tight to the post (70 ‘).
Pirlo pursues his second title
Inter did not give up at any time, they tried desperately on land, sea and air, but their attempts crashed and again and again against the impregnable defense of a Juventus that in the final will have the opportunity to expand their supremacy in the winners of the Coppa d’Italia with what would be the 14th title in its history. It would be Andrea Pirlo’s second at the head of the ‘bianconero’ bench after winning the Supercoppa at Napoli.