Coppa Italia 2022-23 RO16: Juventus and Lazio have progressed to the quarter-finals of the Coppa Italia. While the latter registered a win and a clean sheet with ease. The former needed the goal of a returning Chiesa to seal the spot. Luciano Spalletti apologised for his team’s display.
Juventus 2-1 Monza
Federico Chiesa shot Juventus to the quarter-finals of the Coppa Italia tournament on Thursday evening with his first goal in 378 days. The substitute’s goal was necessary to avoid an embarrassment against Monza.
Juventus was working on an excellent series in Serie A, until leader Napoli was much too strong in a direct fight on Friday: 5-1. Given the ten point deficit on the leader, the Coppa Italia is the only real chance for a national prize this season. For that, De Oude Dame had to deal with Monza.
Two weeks ago, the promoted club of owner Silvio Berlusconi caused a stunt against neighbour Internazionale ( 2-2 ) and also gave Juve a scare. After Moise Kean quickly headed in from a Weston McKennie cross, Mattia Valoti levelled the score from a corner midway through the first half.
After the break, Monza held on for a long time. Kean thought to put Juve back ahead fifteen minutes before the end, but his goal was disallowed for offside. Shortly afterwards, Chiesa still provided the redeeming goal. The attacker, who recovered from a cruciate ligament injury, scored his first goal in more than a year with a nice shot in the far corner.
Lazio 1-0 Bologna
Opponent in the quarterfinals is Lazio, which won 1-0 earlier this Thursday against the Bologna of Jerdy Schouten and substitute Joshua Zirkzee. Brazilian Felipe Anderson scored the only goal of the match at Stadio Olimpico. Beforehand, both clubs reflected on the death of Sinisa Mihajlovic, former player of Lazio and former coach of Bologna.
Luciano Spalletti’s apology
Luciano Spalletti went through the dust on Tuesday after the cup elimination against Serie A low flyer Cremonese. “We’re sorry, there’s a lot of disappointment.”
Due to a late goal by Felix Afena-Gyan, the Coppa Italia game went into extra time on Tuesday. In it, the last of the Serie A received a red card, but it held its ground and outsmarted Napoli in the penalty shootout.
“We haven’t been as good as usual,” Spalletti told Mediaset afterwards. “Everyone knows that every match is a story in itself. If we fail to meet certain quality standards, anything can happen. We killed several chances in numerical superiority, including two on the post. The fact is that we are out because we performed below our level.”
