AFP – Arkadiusz Milik’s late strike helped Juventus reach the Italian Cup final yesterday with a 3-2 aggregate win over Lazio despite losing a tense second leg 2-1.
Nursing a 2-0 first-leg win, Juventus found themselves 2-0 down on the night and completely dominated as Lazio made a fight of it with a brace of goals from Valentin Castellanos.
But late Juventus substitute Milik scored with his first touch on 83 minutes to settle Juve’s nerves and the two-legged semi with a prod-in.
Mattia Perin was in the Juventus goal as their Cup ‘keeper, and suffered a torrid time with regular starter Wojciech Szczesny watching on from the bench.
Castellanos headed Lazio in front with a thunderous header from a corner on 12 minutes and the Argentinian ran from deep to fire a low shot into the bottom corner shortly after the restart.
Juve coach Massimiliano Allegri brought on forwards Timothy Weah and Milik with the clock ticking down and both were involved as the double change paid immediate dividends.
Juventus are bidding to win the Coppa Italia for the 15th time and despite only two wins in 12 matches are third in Serie A.
Strike partners Federico Chiesa and Dusan Vlahovic produced brilliant finishes in the first leg.
The final is at Roma’s Stadio Olimpico.
