Juventus saved their best for last in this rollercoaster of a season, beating and more surprisingly thoroughly outplaying Atalanta in the second half to take home the 14th Coppa Italia in their history, ending a two-year drought.
Dejan Kulusevki: he busted out a dominating display, surely his finest in a white-and-black jersey, and he has benefitted greatly from the freedom and usage given to him in the last two matches, where his role has grown considerably larger. He fully capitalized on it with a gorgeous lefty curled shot, which he took with the most naturalness possible, and came up big also on the second goal, perfectly closing a wide triangle with Federico Chiesa with a superb dish. With that goal, on a more difficult finish, the former Viola winger atoned for an earlier big miss, where he hit the post despite being wide-open and having time to take aim in the box.
Among the other midfielder, Rodrigo Bentancur worked extremely hard in the midfield and kept things afloat, with the assistance of Weston McKennie’s hustle in this case, while Adrien Rabiot was too soft and lost some costly balls.
Gianluigi Buffon: the back-line ended up holding his own despite a terrible start, where it seemed destined to be overwhelmed by the potent Atalanta like so many Serie A teams before them. Conceding just once to the Goddess is a decent accomplishment. Instead, Matthijs De Ligt and Giorgio Chiellini, after seeing ghosts in the early going, got the hang of guarding particularly Duvan Zapata, who was a terror in the initial minutes, but considerably tailed off as the game progressed. The goal arrived on a deep ball recuperation, where the defenders had to scramble and almost blocked Ruslan Malinovskyi. The legendary goalkeeper was not called into action all that much considering, but he clearly deserves the nod in his last appearance with the Bianconeri. He closes his storied career in Turin with another trophy, becoming a record-man in the domestic cup and staying undefeated in the matches he started this season.
Cristiano Ronaldo: he was again the lone striker on the pitch for the majority of the game and, while he was not exactly brilliant, he was noticeable on a pair of stellar fist touches to settle long-balls and especially on the interplay that freed up Chiesa in the box ahead of the first major chance to go up in the score in the second half.
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