Juventus Turin painfully snatched their ticket to the Italian Cup final despite their defeat against Lazio in the semi-final return on Tuesday in Rome (2-1).
Juve, victorious 2-0 in the first leg, has come a long way: they were dominated for 80 minutes and started the match in the worst possible way, conceding a first goal in the 12th minute, on a header from Valentin Castellanos. The Argentine striker from Lazio almost doubled the lead at the end of the first period by taking advantage of yet another marking error from Juve, but he lost his duel with Mattia Perin, Wojciech Szczesny’s understudy (40th).
Returning from the locker room, Lazio worsened the score to come back to level with Juve over the two matches, thanks to the inevitable Castellanos (49th), who had only scored four goals this season before this match .
Igor Tudor’s team seemed to have gained the upper hand physically and psychologically over Juve, but they were surprised in the 83rd minute by Arkadiusz Milik, served by Tim Weah, both returning shortly before.
“We suffered a lot against a good Lazio team, but we are happy to be able to play in this final. We know that we will have to play better in the final, we know that we can play better,” Milik said.
In the final on May 15 at the Olympic Stadium, Juve – whose 14th victory in the “Coppa Italia” dates back to 2021 – will face Atalanta or Fiorentina, who meet in the semi-final return on Wednesday in Bergamo. Fiorentina, unfortunate finalist of the 2023 edition, won the first leg 1-0.
Juve, in free fall in the League (3rd) with two victories since the end of January, can still save their season with a trophy. She is also now guaranteed to play in the very lucrative 2025 Italian Super Cup. However, it is not certain that this will be enough for Massimiliano Allegri to still be in charge of the Bianconeri next season.
“We are not in an easy period for us, but we are fighting, we are not giving up. The great satisfaction is to have reached this final, it will boost us for the end of the championship where we still need a few points to obtain our objective, qualification for the Champions League,” underlined Allegri.
