No surprises at the Allianz Stadium on Wednesday night as Andrea Pirlo’s Juventus easily disposed of Serie B side SPAL to book their place into the Coppa Italia Semi Finals. They will now face Inter in a new edition of the Derby d’Italia to be played on February 3 and 10.
Pirlo got the best from his boys despite leaving space to many backup players including U-23 youngsters Radu Dragusin, who played from the start as right-back for the second Coppa Italia game in a row, and Nicolò Fagioli, who made his seasonal debut with the seniors and was deployed in the middle of the park.
Another U-23, Gianluca Frabotta, who is by now part of Pirlo’s regular roster, scored the second goal of the night after Alvaro Morata found the back of the net from the penalty spot to draw first blood for Juventus after 17 minutes.
The Bianconeri rounded up the score in the final stages of the game as Dejan Kulusevski made it three taking advantage of a Federico Chiesa service, and the former Fiorentina man joined the party four minutes into stoppage time.
There were more good news for Pirlo as the coach recovered Alex Sandro after the Brazilian tested negative for Covid and let him play in the last 22 minutes. Pirlo also gave space to 21-year-old Alessandro Di Pardo, who replaced Federico Bernardeschi after the break, and 18-year-old Marco Da Graca – from whose shot Chiesa tapped the ball in to score Juventus’ fourth.
All in all, it was an ordinary night for the Bianconeri, who caught the third win in a row in three separate competitions, after beating Napoli in the Supercoppa and then Bologna in the Serie A.
SPAL, on the other hand, received too much punishment for what seen on the pitch. There wasn’t much that they could do differently tonight and crashing out of the Coppa Italia will give them more time to focus on their Serie B tests – as the Ferraresi are fully in contention to achieve promotion to the top-flight.
MATCH REPORT
January 27, 2021 – Coppa Italia 2020-21 Quarter Finals
JUVENTUS-SPAL 4-0
SCORERS: 17′ Morata pen., 33′ Frabotta, 79′ Kulusevski, 94′ Chiesa
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JUVENTUS (4-4-2): Buffon; Dragusin, Demiral (83′ Da Graca), De Ligt, Frabotta (68′ Alex Sandro); Bernardeschi (46′ Di Pardo), Fagioli (89′ McKennie), Rabiot, Ramsey; Kulusevski, Morata (68′ Chiesa) (Szczesny, Pinsoglio, Chiellini, Arthur, Danilo, Cuadrado, Bonucci) Coach: Pirlo |
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SPAL (3-4-2-1): Berisha; Okoli, Vicari (46′ Tomovic), Sernicola; Dickmann, Missiroli (87′ Viviani), Esposito (67′ Valoti), Ranieri (46′ Sala); Seck, Brignola; Floccari (67′ Moro) (Thiam, Minelli, Paloschi, Spaltro, Strefezza) Coach: Marino |
REFEREE: Mr. Pezzuto from Lecce
NOTES: Yellow Cards: Chiesa, Morata (J), Sernicola, Valoti (S); Extra Time: 1st Half 3′, 2nd Half 4′