Juventus edge Atalanta in Coppa Italia final

Date: 19th May 2021 at 10:57pm
Written by:

Juventus won the Coppa Italia with a tight 2-1 win over Atalanta on Wednesday night.

The Bianconeri took the lead through Dejan Kulusevski after half an hour, but Ruslan Malinovskyi gave Atalanta a deserved equaliser before half time.

Andrea Pirlo’s side were strong in the second half, and it was Federico Chiesa who scored what proved to be the winner with just under 20 minutes to go.

Atalanta made a bright start to the game but fell behind after half an hour. La Dea felt Robin Gosens had been fouled, but Juventus broke away and the ball presented itself in the box for former Atalanta man Kulusevski. He expertly curled the loose ball around Pierluigi Gollini and gave Juve a priceless lead to defend.

Just before the break, Atalanta drew level through the in-form Malinovskyi. Remo Freuler won the ball from Adrien Rabiot, laid it wide to Hans Hateboer who pulled it back for the Ukrainian to smash home and put Atalanta back in contention.

Juve started the second half very strongly and almost retook the lead with an hour gone. Some wonderful interplay between Ronaldo and Federico Chiesa resulted in Chiesa firing a shot against the post from close range.

In the 72nd minute though, Chiesa made amends for his previous miss. He played an excellent one-two with Kulusevski and slotted the ball past Gollini to give Juve their lead back.

This win means Juve have now won the Coppa Italia 14 times, and it papers over some cracks in what has ultimately been a disappointing season.

 

Comments are closed.