10 February 2016
It was an afternoon to remember for Juventus’ Primavera side as goals from Luca Clemenza, Fabio Morselli and Moise Kean rounded off a 3-1 win in the second leg of their Coppa Italia semi-final tie with Fiorentina.
Carrying a slender 1-0 advantage from the first leg in Florence, Fabio Grosso’s young charges showed no signs of resting on their laurels in the return fixture and, like their enthusiastic visitors, set out to win the game from the very first whistle.
The result was an end-to-end, intense and immensely keenly-contested affair that made light work of the difficult windy conditions in Vinovo.
While the visitors made the brighter start, it would be the home side that scored the all-important first goal, Clemenza dispatching an 18th-minute penalty high into the top corner beyond the grasp of Viola goalkeeper Artem Makarov.
Even with a two-goal cushion on aggregate, Grosso’s side refused to take their foot off the pedal, twice going close to doubling their advantage on the day through Guido Vadala’s powerful effort and Makarov’s smart stop from Morselli.
Those missed chances acted as a shot in the arm for the away side who found themselves level shortly afterwards as Simone Minelli’s close-range shot bounced down off the crossbar and into the Juventus net to send the two sides in level at the break.
Once the Bianconeri had regrouped and regathered their composure after the interval however, that would be as good as it got for the trailing visitors.
Pressing high up the field and playing with tempo and aggression, the league leaders’ positivity was rewarded 14 minutes after the restart, Morselli making amends for his early miss with a cute finish from Vadala’s pass.
As Fiorentina began to tire, Juve pressed home for the advantage and a decisive third goal. And, after Grigoris Kastanos and Francesco Cassata had both struck the woodwork, the afternoon’s work was completed in stoppage time courtesy of substitute Kean’s late strike to begin the party in the home dugout in earnest.
Speaking after the final whistle, coach Grosso was naturally proud of his team’s performance and optimistic for his team’s chances in the competition’s showpiece where they will face yesterday’s first semi-final winners Inter.
He said: "We are delighted to have reached the final particularly since we were so unlucky to lose at this stage last season. There’s still room for improvement for the rest of the campaign but the boys were magnificent today and read the game superbly.
"We have a quality group of lads here that always look to play with humility and in the right spirit of the game. These are exactly the values we want to see from our teams both now and in the future."
