Coppa Italia | Fiorentina 0-1 Juventus: Luck shines on the Old Lady

Fiorentina dominated the first leg of the Coppa Italia semi-final and Jonathan Ikone hit the upright, but Juventus won with a lucky ricochet off Lorenzo Venuti on Dusan Vlahovic’s return to the Stadio Franchi.

This was the first leg, with the second planned for Turin circa April 20. Away goals do count double on aggregate in this stage of the tournament.

Not only was it a decades-old bitter rivalry, but also the first time Vlahovic returned to the Stadio Franchi since his January transfer. He was greeted by 10,000 whistles that were blown every time he touched the ball, and a choreography referencing Dante’s Inferno on traitors.

Paulo Dybala, Federico Chiesa, Weston McKennie, Kaio Jorge, Federico Bernardeschi, Giorgio Chiellini, Denis Zakaria, Alex Sandro and Daniele Rugani were injured. The Viola missed Matija Nastasic and suspended Lucas Martinez Quarta.

Riccardo Saponara and Cristiano Biraghi tested Mattia Perin from distance, while Giacomo Bonaventura didn’t make the most of a poor Perin pass.

Jonathan Ikone sprinted forward on the counter and his angled drive shaved a coat of paint off the base of the far post.

Alvaro Odriozola went off injured at the break, but Ikone had a huge scoring opportunity. He ran onto Lucas Torreira’s through ball, shrugged off Mattia De Sciglio and cut back onto his left foot, but the curler thumped the far post of what was essentially an open goal.

The first genuine Juventus shot on target was on 55 minutes from Vlahovic, who created it out of nowhere with a cheeky flick, but Pietro Terracciano flew to flap it away with a trailing hand.

Perin beat a Cristiano Biraghi free kick round the upright, while Juan Cuadrado went for goal rather than the assist and only hit the side-netting.

The game was decided deep into stoppages by a moment of horrific luck for the Viola. Nikola Milenkovic hit a fresh-air clearance on the Cuadrado cross, it hit Lorenzo Venuti and ricocheted into the net from a couple of yards. There was nothing he could do about it, the ball bounced in off his shin and he burst into tears. To his credit, former teammate Vlahovic went to comfort the young man after the final whistle.

A bizarre own goal from an unlucky Lorenzo Venuti! 😬

Juve steal the first leg win at the death of this Coppa Italia semi-final first leg ⚫⚪ pic.twitter.com/KO2QYKZzDi

— Premier Sports (@PremierSportsTV) March 2, 2022

Fiorentina 0-1 Juventus

Venuti og 92 (J)

Fiorentina: Terracciano; Odriozola (Venuti 46), Milenkovic, Igor, Biraghi; Bonaventura, Torreira, Castrovilli (Duncan 84); Ikone (Gonzalez 84), Piatek (Cabral 65), Saponara (Sottil 65)

Juventus: Perin; Danilo, De Ligt, De Sciglio; Aké (Cuadrado 46), Locatelli, Arthur, Rabiot, Pellegrini; Vlahovic, Kean (Morata 59)

Ref: Guida