Juventus booked a place in the Coppa Italia final after holding visitors Inter Milan to a 0-0 draw in their semi-final, second leg on Tuesday, sealing a date with either Napoli or Atalanta with a 2-1 success on aggregate.
Romelu Lukaku and Lautaro Martinez had chances to get Inter back in the tie in the first half, while Cristiano Ronaldo came closest to adding to Juve’s aggregate advantage in the opening period, having scored both of their goals in the first leg.
After the break, Ronaldo turned on the style and was only denied another goal in the tie by two fine saves from Inter goalkeeper Samir Handanovic.
Inter threw everything at Juve late on but veteran keeper Gianluigi Buffon and his defence stood firm to secure a spot in the showpiece match against the winners of Wednesday’s semi, with Atalanta hosting Napoli after a 0-0 draw in the first leg.
Juventus coach Andrea Pirlo has faced criticism in the first season in his managerial career but his team won the Italian Super Cup last year and is still firmly in the hunt for what would be a record-extending 10th successive Serie A title.
“I hoped to get to this stage of my debut campaign and be in the last 16 of the Champions League, have won the Super Cup and reached the final of the Italian Cup, but we haven’t done anything yet so we have to keep working away and stay focused,” Pirlo said.
“We played well today because Inter hardly had any shots on goal. We had the best chances and (Inter goalkeeper Samir) Handanovic was the best player on the pitch.”
It is the second successive season Inter has been eliminated in the semifinal of the Italian Cup. It is also out of European competition, having finished bottom of its Champions League group.
“We undoubtedly needed to make the most of the many chances we created over the course of 180 minutes,” Inter coach Antonio Conte said. “I think that we saw two teams that fought it out until the very end, but we’ve unfortunately paid the price for gifting them goals in the first leg.
“We tried to turn things around tonight but weren’t able to. We need to learn from our mistakes and bounce back.”
(with Reuters inputs)
