Mueez Ajao
– Juventus swept managerless Sampdoria aside 4-1 to book their spot in the Coppa Italia quarter-final, with Juan Cuadrado, Daniele Rugani, Paulo Dybala and Alvaro Morata on target.
– The 2020-21 Coppa winners will face either Sassuolo or Cagliari in the next phase in early February.
– The Bianconeri had Moise Kean, Matthijs de Ligt and coach Max Allegri sitting out bans, but Danilo made his comeback.
Also Read: Dybala and McKennie stare 3 points for Juventus
– Samp sacked Roberto D’Aversa yesterday, so played under youth team boss Felice Tufano and director Angelo Palumbo instead. They missed Maya Yoshida, Omar Colley, Julian Chabot, Emil Audero, Mikkel Damsgaard, Valerio Verre, Albin Ekdal and Fabio Quagliarella.
– Wladimiro Falcone got one hand to the Juan Cuadrado strike at the base of the near post and Mattia De Sciglio tested the goalkeeper.
– Juve took the lead when a ferocious Cuadrado free kick from the edge of the box burst through the wall and took a slight deflection to squirm off Falcone’s glove into the far bottom corner.
– Moments later, the Bianconeri had the ball in the net again with Alvaro Morata after a smart give-and-go with Cuadrado. However, VAR was used to check an Adrien Rabiot foul on Tomas Rincon in the build-up, so it was disallowed.
– Falcone made a remarkable reaction save from point-blank range as Daniele Rugani redirected a corner with an outstretched boot, while Arthur curled wide.
– There was another huge block on the stroke of half-time, Kulusevski rolling across for Morata to sweep first-time from eight yards, Falcone kicking it off the line with his trailing leg.
– Juventus did double their lead when a corner was taken short, Arthur whipped in a cross for Rugani’s towering header from seven yards into the far bottom corner.
– However, Samp got themselves back into it with a well-taken Andrea Conti half-volley on Tommaso Augello’s cross that bounced in off the inside of the far post.
– Moments later, Kristoffer Askildsen’s glancing header was just wide, as Juve seemed to go to sleep.
– However, so did Samp, a weak Falcone pass playing out from the back intercepted by Manuel Locatelli for substitute Paulo Dybala to sweep home. Unlike at the weekend, he did celebrate.
– Nathan Ake came off the bench and within a couple of minutes was brought down by Augello for a penalty, which Morata converted despite Falcone almost getting his fingertips to it.
– Adrien Rabiot came close too, hitting the upright from a tight angle, while Dybala forced a couple of difficult saves.
