Everyone who believed that the big clubs don’t care about the cup matches are wrong, these two teams were fighting tooth and nail for the winning goal. This match came after a week of Juve complaints about not getting a penalty in the game against Genoa, and the first thing in the Coppa Italia second leg against Lazio, they were again denied a penalty, Mirko Vucinic was the player brought down by Federico Marchetti. And I just have this dreaded feeling that Antonio Conte will try and blame this singular event for Juventus’ exit of the competition, when the fact is; there was a lot more to their expulsion from the competition.
The game started rather nervy and it was rather ragged at times, not something you expect from two teams that boost players of such high quality. Yet with Juve throwing at Lazio, they couldn’t seem to find a way through. One player that seemed to have me off my seat more than once was Sebastian Giovinco, on a number of occasions he went down far too easily and instead of getting up to help his teammates, he would be seen constantly complaining to the referee. This kind of behaviour is not worthy of Champions, and I have to say, it comes from the top. Conte has been complaining about everyone else, rather than improving on his own game.
Conte must be able to come to terms with the harsh truth, that is, his front men aren’t working hard enough, Vucinic is constantly seen complaining to the referee or his own teammates, Giovinco is clearly not the finished product, as his shots are often wayward or not strong enough, as we saw in the final minutes of stoppage time when the could’ve won it, and they are all far too selfish.
But more troubling than this, is the fact that at the end of the game when it looked as though Vidal had forced it into extra time, they conceded within minutes! They cannot lose concentration at any moment of the game, especially when you have a slender lead.
Conte did take this as an opportunity to give the likes of Andrea Pirlo and Claudio Marchisio a rest, but they were brought on late in the game and did come tantalisingly close, yet it was too little too late, now they have one less competition to worry about!
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