It will be up to Juve and Milan to play for the Italian Cup final. This is the outcome of the second leg of yesterday's semi-finals which, on pitches made very heavy by bad weather, saw Juve prevail 1-0 over Atalanta and Milan eliminate Lazio on penalties.
The bianconeri, who had already won the first leg in Bergamo with the same result, secured their fourth consecutive Coppa Italia final by beating Atalanta in Turin too, thanks to a generous penalty scored by Pjanic under the snowflakes. A post on each side crowned a match conditioned by bad weather and too many commitments of this period which lead the teams to sip their energies.
Atalanta attempted the coup but had to settle for a post and Juve were good at putting the game to sleep. A penalty procured by Matuidi and scored by Pjanic allowed the Italian champions to complete the job and thus attempt a fourth consecutive victory in the Italian Cup.
But on their way, Juve will find the resurrected Milan who, after drawing in the first leg, also held Lazio 0-0 yesterday both in the 90 regular minutes and in extra time. Also in this case bad weather played its part but that didn't stop the race from being fought with no holds barred. Milan did better on penalties, to the delight of Gattuso and his team, who a few months ago would never have thought of reaching the cup final and eliminating an opponent like Lazio who will try to make up for it on Saturday by hosting Juve in the league.
Here is the sequence of penalties:
Immobile (goal); Rodriguez (saved); Milinkovic Savic (saved); Montolivo (saved); Leiva (saved); Bonaventure (goal); Parolo (goal); Borini (goal); Felipe Anderson (goal); Bonucci (goal); Lulic (goal); Calhanoglu (goal); Luiz Felipe (out); Romagnoli (goal). The decisive goal was scored by the Rossoneri central defender, formerly of Roma but openly of Lazio faith, to the point that, after bagging the ball, he chose not to cheer.
