Juventus battled a very difficult success with 3-2 over Genoa to reach the quarter-finals of the Italian Cup. The Old Lady needed extra time after taking a 2-0 lead with goals from Dejan Kulusevski in the 2nd minute and Alvaro Morata in the 23rd minute, but missed a lot of chnaces and allowed an equalizer by Lennart Czyborra and Filippo Melegoni. The Turin giant succeeded in the end and the surprising hero was the Tunisian Hamza Rafia, who scored the winning goal for his team in the 105th minute of his debut match.
Andrea Pirlo had chosen a rather experimental line-up. He bet on Buffon as goalie and Demiral, Dragusin and Chiellini in defense. Betancur and Arthur acted in the middle of the field, and Wesley, Bernardeschi, Kulushevski and Portanova were in front of the pair. Morata led the attack.
In the 2nd minute Juventus took the lead in the game. Giorgio Chiellini made a wonderful through pass for Dejan Kulushevski, who remaining one on one with the goalkeeper did not make a mistake for 1-0.
In the 9th minute, after a long attack, Wesley shot failed to make it difficult for the visitors’ goalkeeper Alberto Paleari. In the 13th minute Kulushevski was again brought out alone against the goalkeeper, but this time he made an unforgivable miss, as his shot was saved.
The second goal for the hosts came ten minutes later. Kulushevski received in front of the penalty area and elegantly with one touch brought Alvaro Morata to speed, and the Spaniard calmly finished for 2-0.
In the 28th minute the guests returned in the game out of nowhere. A balloon ball reached Czyborra, who hit a header, Buffon did not intervene very well and the ball became entangled in his net for 2-1.
Gradually Juve players visibly relaxed and were punished. In the 74th minute Filippo Melegoni was left for too long to adjust the ball in front of the penalty area and with a wonderful diagonal shot scored for 2-2.
Cristiano Ronaldo had to enter the game. In added time, he won a free kick, then executed it, but failed to hit the target. That’s when the overtime came about.
In the 105th minute Juventus took the lead in the result again. Hamza Rafia got in front of the door, his first attempt to shoot failed, but in the second he managed to put the ball into the net for 3-2.
In the 108th minute Genoa were on the verge of evening the game again. Marko Pjaca header was cleared the goal line by Arthur. In the 111th minute a great opportunity to decide the match was opened in front of Kulushevski, but his shot was saved.
In the end, Juventus managed to hold on to the victory and qualified for the quarterfinals. There they will face the winner between Sassuolo and SPAL.
