20 February 2019
After travelling to Tavagnacco in the away leg and putting on a masterful performance, defeating the home side 0-4, it was just a matter of protecting the lead and easing our way through. However, our women wanted to win in much more spectacular fashion than that.
It was a dominant match from the Bianoncere as we came out pressing and not allowing any breathing space from the challengers. Everytime we lost the ball it was only a matter of seconds before we pounced and retrieved it again. With such pressure it was inevitable that Tavagnacco would make a dire mistake sooner or later.
At 35’, that mistake happened. After forcing Tavagnacco into an error, it was Banansea that gained possession. What came next was a pin-point cross that was guided home by Broganzi for the first goal of the afternoon in Turin.
It was 10 more minutes of Juve dominance before the break gifted Tavagnacco a much-needed break to re-think their tactics at half-time.
With a five-goal cushion, you’d have thought we would have eased off and switched into cruise control. Of course, that was not the case. Not with this squad.
It was indeed much of the same and after 61’, Cantore made her long-awaited return to the pitch after being out of action due to injury. It was almost instant impact for the teenager as she found herself wide open for a shot that seemed to have enough power in it to split the Tavagnacco defence wide open. But it was no goal on this attempt.
Fast forward ten minutes and Cantore got her shining moment. Finding herself onside and running onto a beautifully weighted through-ball. All she had to do was slot it past the Tavagnacco keeper… and she did just that. Doubling our lead and giving us an overall six-goal advantage with 19 minutes to play.
It was only damage limitation from Tavagnacco for the remaining moments of the match with the time eventually running out and Juventus celebrating their Coppa Italia semi-final berth.
POST-MATCH COMMENTS
"For us it was important to consolidate the good performance from the first leg - Coach Rita Guarino - I'm happy that I could give some of the players who hadn't featured as much the opportunity to play, and I'm also really happy with the goalscoring-return of Sofia Cantore. We were good, ready and focused, playing a careful match also from a defensive point-of-view. There were a lot of fans here to support us today and their support continues to leave me speechless, I thank them for the passion and enthusiasm that they bring us."
Sofia Cantore's emotions: "I am very happy to return to the pitch, and for the goal, as well as making the semi-final. It was important that we won today."
