Wednesday 19 May 2021
Farewell address
Buffon takes the trophy with Juventus
The tournament is a thing of the past and Juventus Turin still have to worry about participating in the Champions League. But the club surrounding coach Andrea Pirlo had one success in his books at the end of the season: The record champions won the trophy.
Goalkeeper legend Gianluigi Buffon deposited Italian record champion Juventus Turin with his title. The 43-year-old won the Italian Football Cup with Juventus on Wednesday with a score of 2: 1 (1: 1) against Atalanta Bergamo. For Buffon, who has played for Turin club since 2001 with a one-year break, this was their fifth Cup victory plus a total of ten Italian championships. The 2006 world champion will leave the traditional club this summer. It is unclear if he will continue his career.
In front of nearly 4,000 spectators at Reggio Emilia, Dejan Kulusevski (31) and Federico Chiesa (73) scored the fourteenth Turin Cup victory. For Bergamo, who had to wait for his second Cup win after 1963, Ruslan Malinowski equalized (41). At Atalanta, German international Robin Goossens was in the starting line-up, and national coach Joachim Loew had just named him to EM_Kader.
For Juventus, winning the cup is a small consolation prize, after Inter Milan this time won the Italian Serie A title after nine successive tournaments. Even Juventus should be concerned about reaching the Champions League. Hence, the future of coach Andrea Pirlo is uncertain.