Italian Cup. 1/8 finals
Turin. “Allianz Stadium”
“Juventus” – “Cagliari” 4:0
Naked: Vlahovich 44, Koopmeiners 53, Conceisau 80, N. Gonzalez 89
Juventus: Di Gregorio, Savona, Locatelli, Kalulu, McKennie, Koopmeiners (Gatti 58), C. Thuram, Conceicao (Wea 81), Yildiz (N. Gonzalez 66), Mbangula, Vlahovic (Adzic 81)
“Cagliari”: Skuffet, Dzappa (Acci 69), Palomino, Vitesca, Augello, Zortea, Marin (Fellici 58), Prati, Dejola (Adopo 82), Gaétano (Piccoli 69), Lapadula (Pavoletti 69)
Chief Arbiter: Ermanno Feliciani
In Serie A, Juventus is suffering. Won only six matches out of 16, three home matches out of nine. In terms of victories on all fields and at home, we are talking about his worst results in the last 36, 26 years. But in other tournaments he feels much freer. Manchester City won the Champions League on Wednesday with a score of 2:0. And today, in the first match of the Italian Cup of the season, they defeated Cagliari. Sardis could provide more resistance, albeit in the league’s relegation zone. The last two matches there were lost to strong Atalanta and Fiorentina only with a score of 0:1, before that they had not lost three matches in a row at all, including 3:3 with Milan. Specifically, we drew with Juve in two previous matches, including 1:1 in Turin in October. But today we applied rotation, thinking about the league. Juventus could not afford to think about anything else. He was obliged to redeem himself for a 2-2 league draw at home to Venice from the relegation zone on Saturday amid the fury of his fans, their quarrel with Dusan Vlahovic. And preferably – confidently. And so it happened. The Bianconeri fielded almost a fighting squad, especially since injuries did not allow rotation. And with it came destruction.
The Turin people did change some things. Defensive player Locatelli played in the center of defense, and defensive player McKennie played to his left. Already in the first minute, such a lineup almost missed. Lapadula completed the cross from the right while falling. Di Gregorio dragged with his foot. Juventus responded actively, but missed the target. Inaccurate, either at the defenders. Conceicao got under the crossbar, but Scuffet pulled it out there. We still managed to score in the locker room. Vlahovic received Yildiz with his back to goal, turned and fired between the defender’s legs. Dusan scored in his third match in all tournaments in a row. And at the beginning of the second half, Koopmeiners scored his second goal for the club. A free kick under the crossbar from almost 30 meters. After which Cagliari didn’t put up much resistance. Then Vlahovic scored twice from offside. Scuffet pulled balls from legal positions. His opponents also hit inaccurately. But in the end, Conceicao moved from the flank to the center and twisted into the far corner. Also, in the end, Gonzalez, who returned from injury, began a breakthrough from his own half of the field and already at the entrance to someone else’s penalty area threw the goalkeeper. The current Cup holder started his title defense brilliantly. He is in the quarter finals for the 18th season in a row and will meet Empoli there. And Cagliari is not in the quarter finals for the 20th season in a row and will be preparing for the league, for a head-to-head meeting between teams from the Serie A relegation zone and Venice. In such a situation, he was not very interested in the Cup.
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