On Wednesday night, Italian Serie A champions sealed the double with an extra time win against Lazio in the Coppa Italia final. Substitute Alessandro Matri, who has barely featured for the Old Lady this campaign, scored in the 97th minute of the game, and the European heavyweights held out for the remainder of the allocated time to seal their second major trophy.
Juventus had to come from behind to win it too, with Stefan Radu putting Lazio ahead just minutes into the game. However, the Bianconeri quickly responded with Giorgio Chiellini tying the cup final less than 10 minutes later.
Lazio had a chance to restore their lead both before and during extra time, with Filip Djordjevic firstly spurning a chance from close range, before hitting both posts with an effort from distance in the first-half of extra time.
Juventus went ahead for good through Matri and Lazio were unable to respond in extra-time. It was for tough for Lazio, but their efforts were not ignored by opposing boss Allegri, who admitted luck played a factor.
“Lazio had a great game, it was worthy of a Final and we knew this would be different from in Serie A. We did well, they did well, they were unlucky hitting the woodwork twice, and we were fortunate on our goal. Football is made of incidents. Before their upright we had two or three favourable situations we didn’t make the most of,” he said.
Manager Massimiliano Allegri was delighted with the victory, and now can think ahead to the Champions League final against La Liga champions Barcelona, who are also chasing a famous treble of their own (La Liga, Champions League & Copa del Rey). The Juve boss has impressively managed to improve upon a side who were perennial winners of the league prior to his appointment, and are now in with a chance of being crowned the best team in Europe.
“I have to say that it wasn’t easy for the lads to win the Scudetto and Coppa Italia. Now we’ll try to win the third. It is not easy to play in three tournaments all the way through a season. Now we will try to nourish this dream and turn it into reality,” Allegri added.
Juventus have won the Italian Serie A and the Coppa Italia, and now can look ahead to Barcelona in the Champions League final in June. Their end to the season has so far gone to plan.
