Juventus snatched a late goal to defeat Fiorentina 1-0 in the first leg of their Coppa Italia semi-final clash.
The home side had dominated proceedings and came close twice through Jonathan Ikone, who hit the post and fired inches wide of the target.
However, Viola failed to find the back of the net and was duly punished when Lorenzo Venuti inadvertently steered Juan Cuadrado’s cross into his net at the death.
Juve has a narrow lead to take into the second leg on 20 April at Allianz Stadium.
Goal:
1-0 JUVENTUS. A nightmare for Fiorentina right at the death as Cuadrado’s strike deflects off Milenkovic and strikes Venuti in the six-yard box. With Terracciano on the deck, the ball spins away from the defender and rolls into the back of the net.
Speaking to Mediaset after the game, Allegri said about several topics:
“We have to congratulate Fiorentina on a good performance. We suffered from two counter-attacks in the first half, again in the second, and fortunately, we didn’t concede because they made mistakes.
“The team then held out well, we ran very few risks, and we had some favourable situations where we should’ve played a better final ball, then Cuadrado went for goal rather than the pass, and we could’ve scored there.
“Winning in Florence is not easy. However, the team showed maturity because this was a difficult match.
“We were missing a lot of players, and Marley Ake worked hard.
“Danilo showed he is truly an extraordinary player of the highest level.
“Defensively, we did well because apart from those counter-attacks, we allowed very little. Although we made mistakes with the final ball, Cuadrado made up for that earlier mistake by putting the ball into the box at the end, creating the goal.
“It was a good performance from everyone, and we are down to the bare bones at the moment.
“But fortunately, Dybala, Bernardeschi and Rugani will be back tomorrow, and we’ll have a few fresh legs.
“Arthur was out for the first part of the season. He has quality, but he needs to give the ball away quicker.
“He is so comfortable on the ball that he relaxes a little too much.
“I liked the way we were organised today and only ran risks on counter-attacks.
“We knew Fiorentina liked to overlap on the flanks and put crosses in, so there wouldn’t be a threat through the centre. Of course, we should’ve kept the ball in their half more, but I saw progress.
“No chance of Scudetto? I’m convinced. The Scudetto will be 84-85 points. Of course, we’d have to win them all, which is very tough.
“But I think at least one of those three teams can reach 84 points with the fixture list.
“Ask them how many points they need for the Scudetto, not me!”
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