Juventus put aside horror start, crush Salernitana in Coppa Italia opener

The Bianconeri were stung before they could break a sweat, but righted themselves quickly and destroyed their visitors.

When Federico Gatti’s almighty howler gifted Salernitana a goal within the first 60 seconds of Thursday night’s game, you got that familiar feeling in the pit of your stomach that Coppa Italia Round of 16 matchup would be another one of those slogs Juventus is prone to against inferior teams that probably give fans’ cardiologists a pretty good living. That’s to say nothing about the fact that in the last season and a half, Juventus has only come back to win a game in which they didn’t score first once.

But then something strange happened. Juve recovered quickly, tied the game, went ahead by a goal before the half, and after the interval crushed Salernitana into the dirt with a barrage of goals the likes of which hasn’t been seen since 2018.

By the time proceedings at the Allianz Stadium were over, Juventus had totally run riot on the side from Salerno, keelhauling them by a 6-1 score to propel them into next week’s Coppa Italia quarterfinals against Frosinone.

Massimiliano Allegri kept the usual 3-5-2 formation but made seven changes from the Roma game on Sunday. In keeping with the long-held policy that the Coppa is the realm of the No. 2 goalkeeper, Mattia Perin started between the sticks. Gatti was joined by Daniele Rugani and Danilo in the back three. Andrea Cambiaso started opposite Samuel Iling-Junior in the wing-back spots, while Fabio Miretti, Manuel Locatelli, and Adrien Rabiot manned the midfield. Federico Chiesa made his first start in a few weeks up top, partnering with Arkadiusz Milik.

Filippo Inzaghi countered his old manager with a 4-2-3-1 formation and made plenty of changes of his own after Salernitana won over the weekend. Vincenzo Fiorillo started in goal and captained the side. Flavius Daniliuc, Matteo Lovato, Dylan Bronn, and Junior Sambia made up the back four. Giulio Maggiore and Mateusz Łęgowski formed the double pivot in midfield. The supporting attack line was made up of Loum Tchaouna, Erik Botheim, and Trivante Stewart, with 

One would hardly have thought the final score would end up the way it was when the visitors threw down the first hand before a minute had elapsed. It’s difficult to tell exactly what went through Gatti’s mind while under pressure from Łęgowski, but he suffered a massive brain cramp and lofted the ball up over Rugani’s head trying to pass it to him. The ball went straight to the chest of Ikwuemesi, who controlled and slotted home so quickly that Perin didn’t even have the time to try to make himself big to put the striker off.

That “here we go again” feeling started settling in, especially after Salernitana spent the next several minutes immediately pushing toward Juve’s goal to increase their advantage. But that abruptly came to an end about 11 minutes after they took the lead.

The move started with Chiesa, who dribbled around the left side for the better part of 30 seconds before driving down the left side and then stopping and going back in his tracks, dumping Łęgowski on his rear end in the process. That created the window for him to send a cross to the back post. There, Cambiaso waited, unmarked, to head the ball back into the middle. Miretti attacked the space and hit the ball first time and drilled it past Fiorillo to even up the score.

Five minutes later, it looked as though Gatti had redeemed himself when he pushed up in attack and sped towards the right-hand side of the box. Sambia went to ground but came up with only Gatti, and referee Davide Ghersini pointed to the spot immediately. But VAR Gianluca Aureliano called down, correctly determining that the foul had begun outside the box and changing the decision to a free kick. Chiesa got on the defensive clearance of said corner and fired it at goal, but Fiorillo got down to hold it.

Chiesa was the next one to come close as well, trying a top-corner curler cutting after cutting inside and missing by a whisker. The No. 7 was again involved when Juve put themselves in front when his corner was flicked on by Danilo, meeting Cambiaso, who volleyed the ball home to make the score 2-1.

Inzaghi made two changes at the break, but things started slowly in the second half until another corner kick. This time Iling-Junior tapped it short to Chiesa, who delivered another excellent cross. Milik rose high and slammed a header on frame. Fiorillo parried it, but Rugani was right in front of him as he did so. The center-back didn’t turn the rebound in as much as it hit him and bounced into the net.

The game was essentially put away. The middle period of the half was less than eventful, before the Bianconeri started piling on with 15 minutes to go.

There were exactly 15 minutes to go when Juve first struck further, after Milik intercepted the ball high up the pitch before eventually slotting second-half sub Kenan Yildiz in on goal with the keeper. Fiorillo managed to win the 1-on-1 duel — but the rebound hit Bronn in the leg and bounced into the goal.

It was Yildiz again two minutes from time when he split two defenders — nutmegging Gyomber in the process — before cutting inside, making Lovato look horrible, then pulling his shot back against the grain, easily stroking the ball home while the keeper, anticipating a far-post shot, dove the other way.

But not to be outdone, another sub came up with the game’s exclamation point out of thin air. Timothy Weah had come on along with Yildiz in the 66th minute, and just after the clock tipped into stoppage time he let loose a rocket from 30 yards out that bounced off the bottom of the bar and in, with Fiorillo barely moving, most likely wondering why he had bothered to get out of bed Thursday morning. The final whistle from Ghersini came a moment later, confirming Juve’s best offensive performance in almost six years.