Milan reach Italian Cup final after shoot-out win
AC Milan will face holders Juventus in the Italian Cup final after beating Lazio 5-4 in a tense penalty shoot-out yesterday morning (Singapore time), which followed 3½ hours of goalless football between the two sides.
Having played to a 0-0 draw in their first leg at the San Siro one month ago, Lazio and AC Milan produced a repeat performance in the return leg at a freezing Stadio Olimpico despite creating plenty of chances.
Nikola Kalinic should have won it for Milan two minutes from the end of extra-time but fired over the crossbar from 12 metres.
Ciro Immobile scored the opening penalty for Lazio butLazio goalkeeper Thomas Strakosha and Milan custodian Gianluigi Donnarumma saved two spot-kicks each.
Luiz Felipe fired over the crossbar from Lazio's seventh attempt before Alessio Romagnoli converted for Milan, reported Reuters.
Donnarumma is already eyeing revenge when they face Juventus in the final on May 9, a repeat of the 2016 edition which Alvaro Morata won for Juventus in extra time.
"The credit goes to the whole team for a great performance, as we worked really hard to reach the final and deserved this," Donnarumma told Milan TV.
"We are a wonderful group. We're so united, the opposition finds it really difficult to break us down. The coach made us become a real team, we are always together. As the coach says, fatigue doesn't exist, it's all in the mind."
Earlier, Juventus scored from a disputed penalty by Miralem Pjanic to beat Atalanta 1-0 and reach the final for the fourth season in a row, winning their two-leg semi-final 2-0 on aggregate.
Atalanta, trailing 1-0 from the first leg, put up a brave fight in Turin but were finally undone in the 75th minute.
The ball was chipped into the Atalanta area where Juve midfielder Blaise Matuidi went tumbling to the ground as he and Atalanta defender Gianluca Mancini leapt for the ball, although contact looked to be either minimal or non-existent.
Pjanic ignored the Atalanta protests to score.
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