Juventus Turin has one and a half legs in the Italian Cup final. The series champion won the semi-final first leg at Inter Milan with a 2-1 victory and has all the trumps in hand for the second leg next week.
Both coaches threw their starting formations a lot mixed up compared to the most recent appearances in the league. Inter-coach Antonio Conte brought the 4-0 win against Benevento de Vrji, Darmian, Eriksen, Vidal, Young and Sanchez for Ranocchia, Gagliardini, Brozovic, Perisic as well as Hakimi and Lukaku (both yellow card suspensions). Juve coach Andrea Pirlo made seven changes after the 2-0 win at Sampdoria Genoa: Buffon, de Ligt, Demiral, Alex Sandro, Bernardeschi, Rabiot and Kulusevski started for Szczesny, Bonucci, Chiellini, Danilo, Arthur, Chiesa and Morata.
Juventus tried to take control of the game from the start. The old lady brought security into her own game with ball relay and actually had more of the initial phase. But Inter made the goal. After a long ball from his own defense, Sanchez maintained the game device and sent Barella steep. This picked up the pace on the right side and fit sharply inwards, where Martinez was a step faster than his opponent de Ligt and scored 1-0 for the Nerazzurri (9th) Juve captain Buffon made an unfortunate figure.
Juve was not deterred and remained the more active team. Young Cuadrado clung in the 26th minute, and Cristiano Ronaldo converted the penalty. The Portuguese was very noticeable and also marked the 2-1 break lead for Juve: After a long ball, Inter keeper Handanovic and Bastoni were at odds, Cristiano Ronaldo sprinted in between, grabbed the ball and shot it into the orphaned goal (35.) .
Sanchez leaves 2-2
After the break, Inter shifted up a gear and Juve waited for now. So the game played mainly in half of Turin. And Inter also had chances to make it 2-2. Sanchez in particular should have equalized in the 58th minute. Betancur lost the ball shortly before their own penalty area, Sanchez grabbed the ball and invited Buffon, but shortly before the goal line Demiral cleared for his already beaten goalkeeper.
Second leg next Tuesday
Inter stayed on the trigger, Juve waited for the counterattack. In the 76th minute Barella took a ball volley from, but aimed a hair’s breadth past. But Juve brought the narrow victory over time. The Italian series champion has thus worked out a great starting position for the second leg next Tuesday.