Before the big Berlin finale of the Champions League, Juventus want to win their second trophy of the season in Rome
After advancing to the Champions League, Juventus have won all three points on Saturday at San Siro against Inter, even though Allegri’s team already secured the title. Juventus haven’t looked good at San Siro, which is no surprise since Marchisio and Morata were the only players from the standard starting line up, and it was them who used the home team’s gifts and scored to Handanovic’s net. Allegri was resting players on San Siro because his team has a Cup final ahead of them, that is a competition they desperately want to win in Torino because they haven’t done so in 20 years.
Juventus have already easily defeated Lazio twice this season, but Allegri is aware that they have a difficult cup game ahead of them:
– This will definitely be a different game because it’s the final, this is the game played for the trophy. I expect an even game that might not be solved in 90 minutes. Winning the Italian Cup is very important, and gives us a great preparation for the game in Berlin.
The heroes of Juventus’ win over Inter, midfielder Marchisio and forward Morata, will not be playing in this final due to suspension. It is expected that Allegri will set the team up in the 4-3-1-2 formation with which they opposed Real Madrid in the Champions League semi-final, while the reserve goalkeeper Storari who substitutes Buffon in this competition on goal, and Sturaro and Llorente will replace the suspended players. The only player with injury problems at Juventus is the back Asamoah, but he has been absent for a while.
Even though Juventus are nominally the hosts of the final, the fact that it is played in Rome is in Lazio’s favour. Pioli’s team does not appear as convincing as it did at the start of the year, but the win over Sampdoria on Saturday still gives them the chance to win the second position in the Serie A which leads to the Champions League next season. Lazio are in for a hellish end of the season, after this game they will face Roma in the city derby for the second position in the League, and in the last round they have a difficult away game at Napoli who are still fighting for the third position. Juventus defeated Lazio twice this year, and, interestingly, the Romans earned their only three wins over the team from Torino in the last 13 years in the Cup in 2009 and 2013.
Pioli would like to crown his first season in Lazio with a trophy:
– We’re playing the finale of the Italian Cup, we earned our spot. We’re facing one of the best Italian teams, one of the best in Europe, but we deserved this finale and we want to outmatch them. Juventus are especially motivated because they are going after all three trophies. It is cleat that we need a so called perfect game, we’re playing in front of our supporters in Rome and we will give our maximum. We have the finale of our dreams ahead of us.
Midfielder Biglia will not play for Lazio because of a knee injury, but it is possible that center back De Vrij, who has been struggling with an injury, will return to the squad from the first minute. It is expected that Lazio will, instead of their usual 4-2-3-1 formation, play in the 4-1-4-1 system with Close in the top of the offene, and Felipe Anderson and Candrev on the sides. Besides Biglia, Lazio’s Cana, Ederson and Pereirinha have also been having some injury problems.
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