Juventus 0-0 Inter Milan: 3 Takeaways as Juve Reach Coppa Italia Final

Juventus advanced to the Coppa Italia Final after a stalemate ensued in their semi-final second leg with Inter on Tuesday night.

The visitors, trailing 2-1 from the first leg, needed to strike twice to advance and if it wasn’t for poor decision-making in the final third, they may well have done. However, Juve offered a threat too, and as the game reached the dying embers, the hosts appeared the more likely to grab the victory before Inter threatened a late revival with Gianluigi Buffon’s goal under siege.

A resolute Bianconeri held firm, though, to seal a place in the competition’s showpiece.

Here are three takeaways from Tuesday’s second leg.

An inverted problem

I get it, Juventini. You’ve just seen your side progress into May’s Coppa Italia final at the expense of your bitter rivals, perhaps you’re not too bothered about the problems caused by Pirlo’s use of inverted full-backs. But, I’m going to run you through it anyway. Sorry.

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We’ve seen Juve’s full-backs invert – take up more central positions – on occasions this season, but it was a distinct feature tonight.

While, on paper, this ploy should aid their build-up play – it opens up passing lanes and gives them a greater first phase presence – and mitigate Inter’s counter-attacking threat, it actually proved a detriment to Juve’s possession play.

The alteration meant width had to be provided by wingers Juan Cuadrado and Federico Bernadeschi, but Inter’s aggressive wing-backs were able to pin the Bianconeri wide pairing and prevent Juve from progressing down the flanks, despite the natural creation of triangles this structure facilitated.

Thus, Juve’s only options for progression came via Cristiano Ronaldo and Dejan Kulusevski due to the lack of a roaming midfielder between the lines, meaning Inter’s back three and, on occasions, the screening Marcelo Brozovic only had two progressive options to cut off – which they did at ease in the opening period.

This issue, combined with an intense and shrewd high Inter press, meant Juve’s build-up play was generally poor. There were periods in the first-half where they simply couldn’t get out.

Cursed Cristiano

On another night, the great one could’ve had five. It seemed that every Juve attack culminated in Ronaldo misfortune.

The Portuguese forward was a menace throughout and was mightily unfortunate not to get on the scoresheet. Imperious bits of defending from Inter pair Stefan de Vrij and Alessandro Bastoni denied Ronaldo in the opening period before a fine save from a rasping CR7 effort by Samir Handanovic prevented a Twitter meltdown. The Juve man had received the ball on the left and danced beyond Nerazzurri duo Milan Skriniar and Nicolo Barella effortlessly prior to the strike.

It was a sequence that would’ve undoubtedly sparked another melee of “CR7 is da GOAT!!!” from Ronaldo stans in the social media bubble, but, thankfully, Samir saved the online world from another tedious GOAT debate on this Tuesday night.

Grinta

Dread it. Run from it. The grinta remains.

Despite Pirlo’s best efforts to evolve Juve into a free-flowing, ‘modern’ footballing side (which he has, to an extent), the grinta will simply never escape. It emerged in the recent victory over Roma, and it was oh so evident tonight.

This was an incredible defensive effort.

Across the board, Juve were outstanding. From Kulusevski’s monitoring of Brozovic to Matthijs de Ligt’s man-marking job on Romelu Lukaku, Juve rarely put a foot wrong from a defensive perspective against Serie A’s most prolific outfit. Juve’s 4-4-2 was almost impenetrable, and any openings the visitors were able to work stemmed from the Bianconeri’s shoddy build-up play.

The closing stages epitomised their work. The expression of a vintage art form at its most effective. Despite Giorgio Chiellini’s late introduction, it wasn’t he who was caught fist-pumping defensive actions. That was Danilo, who, after blocking Stefano Sensi’s goalbound effort late on with a desperate block, enjoyed a subtle pump of the fist. You love to see it.

The game’s final act, which involved a herd of zebra stripes swarming Lautaro Martinez as he attempted to test Buffon from distance, was a fitting conclusion. El Toro’s effort ricocheted harmlessly into the Turin night off one of the ten Bianconeri legs that surrounded him.