After an impressive 2-1 first leg victory in Turin gave them the advantage in this contest, Fiorentina’s Coppa Italia hopes fell apart at the Stadio Artemio Franchi on Tuesday evening as Juventus turned in an impressive performance to come away from Tuscany with a commanding 3-0 victory.
Strikes from Alessandro Matri, Roberto Pereyra and Leonardo Bonucci could not be matched by the Viola who huffed and puffed but simply had no reply as Juventus steamrollered their way through to the final.
After terrorizing the Bianconeri defence in the first leg, Mohamed Salah started this game with exactly the same energy and verve and he was unlucky not to open the scoring in the fourth minute when he managed to wriggle through the visitors defence and poke the ball under Marco Storari. However, the referee disallowed the goal after ruling that Salah had fouled Stefano Sturaro during the penalty box scramble.
Undeterred by that disappointment, the tricky Egyptian continued to look lively throughout the opening stages, causing Juventus problems with his speed and movement as the Viola played a high tempo game and pressed the visitors extremely high up the pitch, allowing them very little time on the ball.
Despite struggling with Fiorentina’s intensity, it was Juventus who opened the scoring against the run of play in the 21th minute. Claudio Marchisio broke away down the right and whipped in a cross which ricocheted into the path of Matri who tucked the ball past Neto to draw the Bianconeri level on aggregate.
Following the goal the game settled down somewhat and Massimiliano Allegri’s men began to stamp their authority on proceedings although the home side did have a effort from a free kick ruled for offside in the 37th minute.
However, it was Juventus who added another goal just before half time to give the Binaconeri a 3-2 lead over both legs. A fluid passing move cumulated with Álvaro Morata striking the ball from just inside the Viola box and although Neto got down to make the save, Pereyra was sharpest to react and he slotted away the rebound from close range.
Unsurprisingly, given the scoreline, it was Fiorentina who emerged from the break with more intent and Mario Gomez came close from a tight angle early in the first half while Salah put a good chance over the bar a few moments later.
For all the hosts aggresive resolve, Juventus always looked exceptionally dangerous when counter attacking and Pereyra and Matri combined brilliantly on the break to win a corner in the 58th minute.
From the resulting set piece, Leonardo Bonucci arrived in the box with perfect timing to smash home Juve’s third and effectively end this game as a contest.
The match did contain one more moment of drama as Morata was given a straight red card for a foolish and completely unnecessary foul from behind on Alessandro Diamanti in the dying minutes, thus depriving his coach of his attacking talents for the final.
Ultimately Vincenzo Montella’s men were punished for their openness and naively while Allegri’s game management demonstrated exactly why his side are now one match away from a domestic double and beginning to dream about a treble.
