Juventus claimed their 14th Italian Cup victory on Wednesday evening after defeating Atalanta 2-1 courtesy of goals from Dejan Kulusevski and Federico Chiesa.
END-TO-END FIRST HALF
Atalanta started off the brighter of the two teams, and they showed their determination from the very first touch of the ball, which resulted in Buffon having to deny Palomino with just three minutes on the clock, before Zapata drilled just wide. The Bianconeri goalkeeper then made a crucial intervention when he was forced to rush off his line after a de Ligt back-header didn’t go as he’d liked, and Buffon brilliantly palmed it away before Zapata could get a touch. It was proving to be an end-to-end game and Freuler fired his across the face of goal, before Juventus then took the lead in the 31st minute with their first chance on goal. Cuadrado’s tackle sparked a counterattack, Ronaldo ran into a crowd of Atalanta defenders on the edge of the box, but McKennie was there, and he poked the ball across to Kulusevski, who beautifully curled it into the back of the net. Atalanta went on the attack and they responded with a goal of their own 10 minutes later, through Malinovskyi’s sliced left-footed strike that cut down the centre of the goal to make it 1-1.
CHIESA WINS IT FOR JUVE
Into the second half and Atalanta grabbed the first chance of the half when a dangerous free-kick was bravely blocked by de Ligt, before seeing Gollini pull off a save to deny Kulusevski following Chiesa’s promising move on the opposite end of the field. Juventus then went agonizingly close to taking the lead again when Ronaldo’s back heel found Chiesa, who ferociously fired at goal only to see the ball rattle the post! The scoreline did change 2-1 in favour of Juventus in the 73rd minute: Chiesa did brilliantly well to cut inside from the left, pass it to Kulusevski, who then returned the layoff to him, as he swept it past Gollini from inside the small box. Dybala came on for the goalscorer, while Bonucci replaced Kulusevski as Juventus went on to hold out for a 14th Italian Cup victory.
Atalanta XI: Gollini; Toloi, Romero, Palomino; Hateboer, De Roon, Freuler, Gosens; Pessina; Malinovskyi, Duvan Zapata
Subs: Rossi, Sportiello, Maehle, Sutalo, Lammers, Muriel, Caldara, Djimsiti, Ruggeri, Miranchuk, Ilicic, Pasalic
Juventus XI: Buffon; Cuadrado, De Ligt, Chiellini, Danilo; McKennie, Bentancur, Rabiot, Chiesa (Dybala 74’); Kulusevski (Bonucci 82’), Ronaldo