REJUVENTUS
Dethroned as league champs, Juventus claw back to claim Italian Cup
Reggio Emilia (Italy), May 20: Dethroned league champions Juventus beat Atalanta 2-1 to win the Italian Cup for the 14th time on Wednesday as fans returned to the stadium for the first time in over a year.
Goals in either half from Dejan Kulusevski and Federico Chiesa gave coach Andrea Pirlo his second second trophy of the season after the Italian Super Cup, on the day he turned 42.
Atalanta coach Gian Piero Gasperini was denied a first trophy of his coaching career, and Atalanta’s second trophy after the 1963 Coppa Italia.
It was a boost for Juventus who go into the final weekend of the season with their Champions League qualification going down to the wire after Inter Milan ended their nine-year league reign. Gianluigi Buffon was in the Juventus goal for the final time in his career and the veteran keeper was solid on the night winning his sixth Coppa Italia 22 years after his first with Parma.
The veteran pulled off a big save just after kickoff at the Mapei Stadium in Reggio Emilia.
Duvan Zapata had pulled back for Jose Luis Palomino with 43-year-old Buffon using his legs to stop the ball.
Despite the Bergamo side’s early domination Juve made the breakthrough after half an hour. Cristiano Ronaldo went down but amid a scramble in front of goal Weston McKennie sent the ball across to Kulusevski who curled into the net.
But ten minutes later Ruslan Malinovskyi blasted in the equaliser.
Pierluigi Gollini denied Kulusevski a second just before the hour after good work from Chiesa.
Chiesa then clipped the post after latching onto a Ronaldo backheel flick. But the former Fiorentina forward made no mistake with quarter of an hour remaining after combining with Kulusevski to beat Gollini. —