Vlahovic, who had joined Juve from Fiorentina in the January transfer window, once again proved decisive as his 88th minute deflected effort went inside the net to take Juve into the last four.
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Juventus head coach Massimiliano Allegri felt that his side “had the right spirit in the second half” and “were more aggressive” after the 2-1 win over Sassuolo in the Coppa Italia quarter-final fixture in Turin on Thursday. The Biaconeri had to fight hard to enter the last four of the competition. Paulo Dybala’s opener was canceled out by Hamed Traore, and then Dusan Vlahovic’s deflected effort went in, late in the match. Sassuolo goalkeeper Gianluca Pegolo performed exceptionally well to keep the visitors in the game for a large period of the game.
Vlahovic, who had joined Juve from Fiorentina in the January transfer window, once again proved decisive. The Serbian striker got past Mert Muldur on the left flank, cut inside for a shot that changed direction off Ruan Tressoldi to surprise the goalkeeper in the 88th minute. Juve will face Vlahovic’s former club Fiorentina in the two-legged semi-final clash.
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“We are happy with Vlahovic and Zakaria, who are very good players and settled in quickly. Juve had been playing better recently, so these players bring characteristics we didn’t have before,” Allegri told Sport Mediaset.
“We are happy to have Vlahovic, he needs to improve, be cleaner in the way he plays, attack the space more, but that’s the normal process for any player.”
“It was practically over, but we were lucky with that late chance. It’s also true that we created many chances in the second half and did well,” continued the coach.
“We rather fell asleep after our opening goal and Sassuolo pushed us further and further back into they equalised. There were already signs of recovery by half-time and then we poured forward.”
Allegri didn’t want the game to go to extra time, with an important Serie A clash against Atalanta coming up, so he introduced Alvaro Morata and Manuel Locatelli to step up the pressure. Allegri was asked whether the Spaniard can become a Mario Mandzukic-style wide attacker?
“Alvaro always did play with a centre-forward and moved around behind him. He doesn’t always express the best of himself that way, but he came on with the right attitude this evening.
“We had the right spirit in the second half, we were more aggressive, won back the ball quickly with duels and that makes the difference, especially against a side like Sassuolo.”
Juventus are in the Coppa Italia semi-final and fourth in Serie A ahead of this weekend’s showdown with Atalanta. Are they really out of the Scudetto race?
“We are potentially 11 points off Inter, so no, we have to focus on Atalanta. They are a physical side with a lot of quality, they will be fired up by their Coppa Italia elimination, so we need to give it our all on Sunday and see what happens. The other teams are too far away.”
