Special to Sports News Highlights

(SNH) — Juventus won its record-extending No. 15 Coppa Italia trophy by beating Atalanta 1-0 on Wednesday.

Dusan Vlahovic scored inside the fourth minute and that was all the goalscoring that the Bianconeri needed behind a stellar defensive performance.

The Coppa Italia is the first trophy that Juventus has won since 2021 – where it defeated Atalanta in the same competition. Max Allegri became the first coach ever to win the Coppa Italia five times, surpassing Roberto Mancini and Sven-Goran Eriksson.

Allegri is expected to be replaced at the end of the season and will likely finish his managerial career at Juve with 12 titles.

Vlahovic became the third Juventus player to score in two Coppa Italia finals alongside John Charles and Savino Bellini. The Serbian also scored in the 2022 defeat against Inter Milan.

It looked like Vlahovic doubled the lead in the 72nd minute but it was later disallowed due to offsides.

The Juventus defense didn’t allow a single shot on target throughout the entirety of the match despite Atalanta holding 66% of the possession. Atalanta’s best chance came late in the game after Ademola Lookman hit the post in the 80th minute. Juventus also struck the post as Fabio Miretti’s scorcher hit the crossbar just a few minutes later.

Atalanta’s last Coppa Italia victory came in 1962 but they will have a chance to win their second major trophy in club history in the Europa League final against Bayer Leverkusen.

The Italian side will be receiving reinforcements with striker Gianluca Scamacca back for the final after he missed the Coppa Italia due to suspension.

Scamacca has scored 10 goals in the last two months – just two players in Europe’s top five leagues have scored more.

As for Juventus, it has just two Serie A matches remaining before the 2023/24 campaign ends.

The Bianconeri are likely going to embrace a new era heading into next season with Bologna manager Thiago Motta their top choice to replace Allegri. Motta has led Bologna to their first Champions League appearance ever in the modern era – with the club’s last European Cup appearance coming in 1964.

“If I am no longer the Juventus coach next year, I will leave a strong team,” Allegri said in his post-match press conference. “The club will make its evaluations.”

Vlahovic seems to be the face of Juve’s project going forward.

“We know the difficulties we faced, in the end we achieved the objectives set at the beginning of the year,” Vlahovic said. “We are very happy, but next year we must aim to win everything. Juventus’ DNA requires this.”

Juventus entered the match with just three wins since the start of February.

The future of Juventus attacker Federico Chiesa is also up in the air, but he made his priority to stay with the club clear after the match.

“I want to stay at Juventus,” Chiesa said. “I want to bring this great club back to where it belongs. I’ve spoken to the directors about the contract extension, we will see what happens next.”

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