Juventus score 'goal of rare beauty' in Italian Cup cruise
Juventus beat visiting Udinese 4-0 in the late game, after Milan had dispatched SPAL, 3-0.
In the first game of the evening, 10-man Fiorentina beat Atalanta 2-1.
Ronaldo was sidelined after suffering an attack of sinusitis in the afternoon, but he is not the only ace in the Juventus pack. After 16 minutes, Paulo Dybala carved through Udinese with a series of
quick one-twos, finishing with a couple of exchanges with centre forward
Gonzalo Higuain.
When his Argentine compatriot played a pass one
little behind him, Dybala spun and floated the ball onto Higuain's chest
and he strode forward and scored.
"That was a goal of rare beauty, to see three
or four exchanges like that at high speed. It was worth the price of the
ticket," said Juve coach Maurizio Sarri.
"I love to see goals like that with fast passing, but they can only work with players of great technical quality."
Ten minutes after the opener, Udinese goalkeeper Nicolas tripped Federico Bernardeschi and Dybala converted the penalty.
Dybala scored a in the 58th minute, clipping the
ball over Nicolas from the right edge of the box. Two minutes later
Douglas Costa converted Juve's second penalty after Bram Nuytinck
handled.
In Milan, Krzysztof Piatek, who is reportedly
on the verge of a move to Tottenham Hotspur, outpaced the sluggish SPAL
offside trap to give the home team the lead after 20 minutes.
Samuel Castillejo curled a precise left-foot shot inside the far post just before half time.
Fullback Theo Hernandez added a third in the
66th minute, surging upfield and smashing home a left-foot shot from
just outside the penalty area.
In Tuscany, Spaniard Pol Lirola collected Erik
Pulgar's long pass before charging towards goal and slotting home his
first Fiorentina goal six minutes from time, winning the tie for the
hosts despite German Pezzella's sending off 14 minutes earlier.
Patrick Cutrone also scored his first goal for
the club when he put Fiorentina ahead in the 11th minute of his first
start since arriving on loan from Wolverhampton Wanderers last week.
The away side scored a deserved leveller when former Fiorentina man Ilicic turned in a superb Ruslan Malinovskiy cross.
But Lirola won the tie to set up a tough match
with Serie A title chasers Inter Milan. The winner of that clash face
either Lazio or Napoli in the semifinals.
On Tuesday, Inter thumped Cagliari 4-1 with Romelu Lukaku scoring twice.
Holders Lazio, who are on a club-record run of
10 straight wins in Serie A, made short work of Cremonese in their 4-0
victory in Rome.
Troubled Napoli eased into the quarters with a 2-0 win over Perugia thanks to two Lorenzo Insigne penalties.
In the last eight, AC Milan will face Torino who beat Genoa on penalties last week.
Juventus will play the winner of the last tie of the round, Roma at Parma on Thursday.
Juventus score 'goal of rare beauty' in Italian Cup cruise
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