Cristiano Ronaldo strikes twice to give Juventus edge over Inter in Coppa Italia
Andrea Pirlo says a Serie A defeat by Internazionale helped his Juventus facet tackle their points and earn revenge with a 2-1 semi-final first-leg victory towards their rivals in the Coppa Italia.
The Italian champions have been outplayed in a 2-0 defeat at San Siro on 17 January, however have gained 5 consecutive video games since together with this comeback victory on Tuesday night time.
Cristiano Ronaldo struck twice following a Lautaro Martínez’s opener to assist Juve to put one foot in the ultimate forward of the second leg in Turin on 9 February.
Looking again on the league assembly with Inter, Pirlo instructed Rai Sport: “We weren’t in that game, but it served as a lesson for us. From there we regrouped, worked on the errors and more victories arrived. But tonight was the first round, there’s another game to come and it’s played over 180 minutes. Nothing is done yet.
“The guys were great, they faced Inter with the right attitude from the first minute. We went behind, but we continued to play. There was a great reaction from the team.”
Ronaldo appeared sad when he was substituted in the 76th minute, however Pirlo defined he wished to hold his Portuguese talisman contemporary for a busy interval of fixtures. “I told him that he had to come off because we have an important game on Saturday [against Roma in Serie A], so it’s right to let him catch his breath,” Pirlo stated. “He’s playing many games consecutively, so every now and then a little bit of rest does some good.”
Inter’s supervisor, Antonio Conte, wasn’t proud of the end result after Ashley Young conceded a penalty earlier than a defensive mixup between Samir Handanovic and Alessandro Bastoni helped to put one other purpose on a plate for Ronaldo.
“We committed two naive errors that allowed them to go 2-1 up,” Conte stated. “Otherwise it was another great performance, with many chances created. But we need to finish them, because now we’re talking about a negative result. The guys gave everything, they had Juve on the ropes, they deserved a lot more.”
