Juventus have earned a 2-1 win at the San Siro, to put one foot in the final of the Coppa Italia.
Juventus were shaken early on when Inter Milan striker Lautauro Martinez managed to keep his strike hard and low which Gigi Buffon failed to get enough on. The veteran shot-stopper will have believed he should have done better, but he was certainly to make up for it later on.
The Old Lady were not to stay down after the early blow however, as we piled forward in numbers to put the Nerazzurri on the backfoot.
That pressure eventually come through for Juve. Cuadrado’s pace takes Ashely Young off guard inside the box, and the former Man United defender grabs his counterpart and pulls him to the ground. VAR proves to grant the penalty, after the referee initially refused to do so.
We continued to pile pressure on our rivals, but our goal didn’t come from our own hard work. Instead it was the Inter defender and goalkeeper which failed to keep composed, and having both chased down the ball, left no space to take advantage of their numbers and the defender gifted CR7 the chance to score.
After the break the home side were fired up. Inter dominated almost he entire second-half, with Juve forced to put numbers behind the ball, and Buffon made some amazing saves to deny Inter to keep us ahead in the tie.
Inter will be frustrated that they lost the home leg of the two-legged Coppa Italia tie, especially considering their dominance after the break, but just as our team has proven in recent weeks, we play like champions, and we can win the hard way or the easy way.
Can anyone stop Juventus?
Patrick
