Juventus wins Coppa Italia to keep treble hopes alive

Juventus claimed its 10th Coppa Italia title with a 2-1 extra-time victory over Lazio on Wednesday at the Olimpico Stadium in Rome, Italy.

Claiming the Italian domestic cup ensured that the team from Turin will enter the Champions League final on June 6 with a chance to claim an Italian and European treble. Already, Juventus had secured its fourth straight Serie A league title. However, the Old Lady of Italian Football had not claimed the Italian cup in 20 years.

Exactly one week after claiming a Champions League final berth, Juventus lined up a strong side in the domestic cup final. As is often the case in cup competitions, first-choice goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon made way for second-choice stopper Marco Storari. Also, Alvaro Morata, who was the hero of the Champions League semifinals, was suspended and replaced by compatriot Fernando Llorente. Save for those changes, Juventus lined up a strong side that included Andrea Pirlo, Carlos Tevez, Paul Pogba and Arturo Vidal.

In spite of the strong lineup, the famous black and white stripes could not avoid going down early after Lazio captain Stefan Radu struck a powerful header from a set piece. However, the Italian league champions would level the score with an acrobatic piece of invention from Juventus captain Giorgio Chiellini. The two sides would play a hotly contested match that required an additional 30 minutes of extra time to decide the affair.

In the first 15 minutes of the extra period, Lazio forward Filip Djordjevic would launch a long-range effort that struck both posts but somehow stayed out of the net. Moments later, Alessandro Matri came up big with a match winner. Matri, who has become Juventus’ forgotten forward these days, had been previously denied with a debatable offside flag that cancelled out a potential match winner in regulation.

With the victory, this 2014-15 Juventus side is on the verge of becoming only the second Italian side to complete a European treble. During the 2009-10 season, Inter Milan won the Champions League, Serie A and Coppa Italia in Jose Mourinho’s final season. That season, Inter denied Louis van Gaal’s Bayern Munich a European treble with a 2-0 victory in Champions League Final, and the current Juventus side will hope to mirror Inter’s accomplishment.

If Barcelona tops Athletic Bilbao in the upcoming Copa del Rey final, the Champions League final will again feature two sides playing one match for a European treble. For Juventus, ending the 20-year Coppa Italia drought only furthered the narrative that this is a team of destiny.

Next, Juventus will hope that destiny can trump the god that is Lionel Messi in the Champions League Final on June 6.

Shahan Ahmed is a soccer columnist for Yahoo Sports. He has previously written about the 2014 World Cup and 2013 Confederations Cup and regularly provides opinions on the English Premier League, UEFA Champions League, German Bundesliga, Italian Serie A and Spanish La Liga. Follow Shahan on Twitter: @ShahanLA and @perfectpass.