Football Italia
·17 dicembre 2024
Football Italia
·17 dicembre 2024
Juventus thrashed Cagliari 4-0 with goals of remarkable quality and skill from Dusan Vlahovic, Teun Koopmeiners, Francisco Conceicao and Nico Gonzalez to set up a Coppa Italia quarter-final with Empoli.
These teams drew 1-1 here on October 6 and Juve were coming off four consecutive Serie A stalemates, jeered off the pitch on Saturday after a 2-2 with rock bottom Venezia. With Douglas Luiz, Arkadiusz Milik, Jonas Rouhi, Gleison Bremer and Juan Cabal out of action, defenders were rested for Manuel Locatelli and Wes McKennie in unexpected roles. The Sardinians made the trip without Zito Luvumbo and Adam Obert, but their priority was getting out of the league relegation zone.
Cagliari had a huge opportunity within the opening 40 seconds, as Nadir Zortea rolled across from the right for Gianluca Lapadula to come sliding in, Michele Di Gregorio making a desperate reaction save with his foot.
Dusan Vlahovic fired over from a tight angle after springing the offside trap on a Teun Koopmeiners assist, then Kenan Yildiz had an acrobatic volley charged down from 12 yards by Mateusz Wieteska.
Francisco Conceicao’s left-foot strike curled just wide of the far post from the edge of the area, then another scorcher was palmed out of the top corner by Simone Scuffet.
Juventus eventually took the lead when Kenan Yildiz found Vlahovic from eight yards with a smart pass, the striker controlled with his back to goal, turned on the spot and drilled it through Wieteska’s legs into the far bottom corner.
TURIN, ITALY – DECEMBER 17: Dusan Vlahovic of Juventus scores his team’s first goal during the Coppa Italia match between Juventus FC and Cagliari Calcio at Allianz Stadium on December 17, 2024 in Turin, Italy. (Photo by Valerio Pennicino/Getty Images)
The Bianconeri doubled their lead after the restart with a magnificent free kick from Koopmeiners, who bent the ferocious left-foot finish into the top corner from a good 30 yards out.
Juventus break the deadlock! ⚫⚪ Dusan Vlahovic scores the opener in off the post 🔥 pic.twitter.com/AoqNtYdBx5 — Premier Sports (@PremSportsTV) December 17, 2024
Vlahovic had the ball in the net moments later with a delightful dinked finish, but he was offside on the Khephren Thuram ball over the top.
Francisco Conceicao forced an unorthodox Scuffet save at the near post, while Nico Gonzalez was unlucky to see his free header from a corner deflected inches wide off Lapadula.
Vlahovic had his second disallowed goal of the game, again for offside, with a diving header on the Francisco Conceicao curler that was going wide.
It should’ve been 3-0 on 78 minutes when Vlahovic caught Alessandro Deiola napping in midfield and surged forward alone, but in trying to go round Scuffet, he narrowed the angle too much and could only hit the side-netting.
Instead, Francisco Conceicao finally got his goal after several attempts, cutting inside Jose Luis Palomino to bend it with his left foot into the far bottom corner.
Nico Gonzalez left the best until last with a truly extraordinary goal, as he started the run from inside his own half and at a full sprint managed to lob Scuffet from the edge of the area with remarkable precision.
Nico González with a piece of GENIUS! 😱 An absolutely delicious chip from outside the box to make it 4-0 to Juventus ⚫⚪ pic.twitter.com/GmtaQM0T1G
Michele Di Gregorio kept the clean sheet, as Prati blasted straight at him during a well-worked Cagliari move.
Vlahovic 44 (J), Koopmeiners 53 (J), Conceicao 80 (J), Nico Gonzalez 89 (J)