Held To A Draw By Inter Goalless, Juve Still Advances To The Italian Cup Final

Juventus vs Inter (Photo: Antara)

JAKARTA - Juventus advanced to the Italian Cup final even though they only played a goalless draw against Inter Milan in the semifinal second leg at the Allianz Stadium, Turin, Tuesday local time (Wednesday WIB).

The reason is, Juve managed to win 2-1 in the first leg a week ago, so the Bianconerri escaped with a similar aggregate score, as noted by Antara from the official Italian League website.

In the final, Juventus will be waiting for the winner of another semifinal between Atalanta and Napoli, who will play the second leg a day later after the first meeting of the two teams ended in a 0-0 draw a week ago.

Despite the fierce progress of the first half, both Juventus and Inter struggled to create meaningful chances in the opening 15 minutes.

Alex Sandro received a yellow card for his foul on Achraf Hakimi, and he will miss the final. In the 25th minute, Nerrazurri comes close to scoring from a free-kick situation, but Romelu Lukaku fails to grab Christian Eriksen's cross.

Lautaro Martinez had another good chance, but he failed to score even though home keeper Gianluigi Buffon had made a mistake.

Eriksen tried to break the deadlock with a shot from the edge of the area which Demiral blocked.

Cristiano Ronaldo had three chances, but Stefan de Vrij and Matteo Darmian were able to block his shots, and goalkeeper Samir Handenovic was able to thwart the efforts of the two Portuguese players.

Inter coach Antonio Conte brought in Ivan Perisic to replace Matteo Darmian in the second half to try to add to his team's pounding power, and Juventus always tried to build up attacks from below. Ronaldo's shot after Juve counterattacked just wide of the visitors' goal.

The Portuguese star had the best chance of the game, but failed to make the most of Weston McKennie's through ball with Handanovic making a save at the near post. The goalkeeper thwarted Ronaldo's chances again after he dribbled past Milan Skriniar and Nicolo Barella.

Inter locked Juve in the final stages of the game, but they failed to score the goal they needed, especially after Andrea Pirlo brought on Giorgio Chiellini.

The composition of players:

Juventus (4-4-2): Gianluigi Buffon, Danilo, Merih Demiral, Matthijs de Ligt, Alex Sandro, Juan Cuadrado (Giorgio Chiellini 82 '), Rodrigo Bentancur, Adrien Rabiot, Federico Bernardeschi (Weston McKennie 62'), Cristiano Ronaldo , Dejan Kulusevski (Federico Chiesa 87 ')

Coach: Andrea Pirlo

Inter Milan (3-5-2): Samir Handanovic, Milan Skriniar, Stefan de Vrij, Alessandro Bastoni (Aleksandar Kolarov 65 '), Achraf Hakimi, Nicolo Barella, Marcelo Brozovic, Christian Eriksen (Stefano Sensi 65'), Matteo Darmian ( Ivan Perisic 58 '), Romelu Lukaku, Lautaro Martinez

Coach: Antonio Conte