Juventus erupts for four goals in second half to wipe out AC Milan, win Coppa Italia final

Joey Gulino
(Reuters)
(Reuters)

Over the course of 20 minutes, the Coppa Italia final went from cagey to rampageous. And it was Juventus who did the rampaging.

Juve scored four times in the second half to throttle AC Milan 4-0 and win what will likely be the first of two trophies over the next few days. Juventus can clinch the Serie A title with a result at AS Roma on Sunday in the same stadium as the Coppa Italia final, the Stadio Olimpico.

If the Old Lady plays like it did in Wednesday’s second half, the crown will be headed back to Turin.

Medhi Benatia scored twice, including the opening goal, a bullet header snapped into the upper corner in the 56th minute:

A few minutes later, Douglas Costa doubled the lead with a left-footed curler that Milan goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma likely should have handled better:

Benatia scored again in the 64th minute, and a Milan own goal in the 76th minute all but put the game to bed. This is the fourth straight Coppa Italia title for Juventus, which did it while leaving some big names on the bench, including Gonzalo Higuain, Stephan Lichtsteiner and Benedikt Howedes.

It’s an unbecoming end of a campaign Milan hoped would restore its place among Europe’s elite clubs. After a spending splurge over the summer, Milan is currently sixth in the Serie A table and could finish as low as eighth.

The club was also bounced somewhat surprisingly from the Europa League Round of 16 by Arsenal, and now its new ownership group might be forced to sell some of the best players without the influx of Champions League cash.

Meanwhile, Juventus simply rolls on, with Wednesday’s second half an apt summation of its performance most of this decade.

Joey Gulino is the editor of FC Yahoo and moonlights as a writer. Follow him on Twitter at @JGulinoYahoo.

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