Rome (AFP)
Serbian striker Dusan Vlahovic hit again, and confirmed that Juventus’ bet on him was in place, by leading the defending champion to the Italian Cup semi-finals with a last-gasp victory over Sassuolo 2-1, to face his former team, Fiorentina, who won his role with a fatal goal against its host Atalanta 3-2. In Turin, after finding his way to the net in his first match in the Juventus shirt against Verona in the league “2-0”, Vlahovic played the main role in qualifying Juventus to the semi-finals of the Cup by causing the killer goal to win, which was awarded to Brazilian defender Ruan Tresoldi by mistake. His team two minutes before the end, when the two teams were preparing for two extra games.
After the match started in the best way with his progress since the third minute thanks to his Argentine captain Paulo Dybala, who received the ball, after an error in intercepting Rowan Trisoldi, the performance of the “old lady” players declined, amid a rush of guests who threatened goalkeeper Mattia Perin, until they succeeded in equalizing with a shot. Beautiful bow from Ivorian Hamed Traoré «24». Contrary to the first half of his first participation in the league on Sunday against Verona, Vlahovic did nothing in the first half, so that the tie remained the master of the situation until the end, then Juventus started the second half better, and was close to scoring, had it not been for the standing in the face of an attempt by the American Weston McKinney « 55».
Veteran goalkeeper Gianluca Bigolo starred in the face of the Turin giants’ attempts, most notably Makini’s header. But the relief came in the end, and Bigolo bowed when Juventus launched a counter-attack, which Dybala delivered the ball to Vlahovic, who manipulated the Turkish passed Muldor, before he shot from a difficult angle, turning the ball from Rowan Tresoldi and deceived his goalkeeper «88».
Coach Massimiliano Allegri was happy with what he has seen so far from Vlahovic, but he stressed, “He must improve, make his way of playing more clear.” Vlahovic will now meet in the semi-finals with his former team Fiorentina, who, despite losing his Serbian top scorer to Juventus last month, and having to complete the match with ten players, managed to reach the semi-finals by eliminating his host Atalanta with a fatal 3-2 goal after a crazy match.
And Atalanta thought that he took control, after he came from behind with a goal scored by Polish Kristof Piontik in the ninth minute from a penalty kick, to lead 2-1 thanks to a wonderful arc shot from Davide Zappacosta (30) and Ivorian Jeremy Boga (56). But Piontec struck again, and equalized for the visitors with a second penalty, which this time failed to translate after Argentine goalkeeper Juan Musso blocked it, but the ball returned to the Polish and he followed it into the net «71». It seemed that the cuff would tilt in Atalanta’s favour, after Argentine defender Lucas Martinis Quarta was sent off from the visitors’ ranks in the 79th minute for a second yellow card, but Serbian substitute Nikola Milinkovic shocked the hosts when he snatched the winning goal and qualified for Fiorentina in the last third minute of overtime with a superb shot “on Al Tayer” from the outskirts of the area to the right of goalkeeper Mouso “93”.
This shocking exit adds to the problems of Atalanta, who reached the final last season before losing to Juventus and thus failing to win their first title since 1963, as coach Gian Piero Gasperini’s team did not taste victory for the fourth match in a row in all competitions. This defeat also comes before his expected match on Sunday in the league at home against Juventus, who are two points ahead of the Bergamo representative in the last fourth place that qualifies for the Champions League, knowing that Atalanta has a postponed match.
With Juventus and Fiorentina, the dreamer qualified for the first title since 2001, the semi-final contract was completed, after they were preceded by the champion and leader of the league, with their victory on Tuesday against its guest Roma 2-0, to face its arch-rival Milan, who achieved a landslide victory Wednesday over Lazio, the other pole of the capital 4-0. The semi-final matches will be held in a back-and-forth system, where Juventus and Fiorentina meet on March 3 in Florence and before that on Inter and Milan in a match calculated on the latter’s land, and on April 21 in Turin, to meet the day before the Milan poles.