With European football via the league by no means a guarantee, Igor Tudor’s Lazio looked to overturn a two-goal deficit from the first leg against Juventus to reach a Coppa Italia final for the first time since their 2019 victory.
A raucous Stadio Olimpico crowd was behind them, and the hosts had the Bianconeri on the back foot early, opening the scoring after 12 minutes.
Castellanos had scored just four times this season coming into tonight’s fixture, but after being preferred upfront to Ciro Immobile, he rose above a flat-footed Alex Sandro and powered home a header from Luis Alberto’s corner.
Nobody has won more Italian domestic cups than Juventus, and they should have been level on the night 10 minutes later but Dusan Vlahovic couldn’t make strong enough contact with Federico Chiesa’s cutback as Christos Mandas denied him with his boot.
Minutes later, Bremer should have done better from Filip Kostic’s corner but headed over after losing his marker. At the other end, Castellanos came close to levelling the tie with his second of the game just before the break, yet he was denied one-on-one by the onrushing Mattia Perin in the Juve goal.
However, the former New York City forward was not to be denied as just three minutes into the second half he had the home crowd in raptures after beating the offside trap and showing great strength to hold off Bremer and Danilo before calmly slotting past Perin.
A madcap couple of moments 10 minutes into the second period saw a heroic goal-line clearance by Adam Marusic followed by Vlahovic dragging a shot wide a minute later. Castellanos was then denied by Perin again after careering away from the Juve defence but was ruled offside anyway, perhaps to the Argentinian’s relief as he should have done better with the finish.
As Lazio threw on club captain Immobile, it was an inspired sub from Massimiliano Allegri that won the tie for Juventus. Milik had been on the pitch for less than a minute when he turned home fellow substitute Timothy Weah’s cutback from close range on 83 minutes with his first touch.
Despite losing on the night, Juventus progress to their record-extending 22nd Coppa final and they will be back in the Eternal City for the May 15th showpiece against the winner of tomorrow night’s second semi-final between Atalanta and Fiorentina.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Arkadiusz Milik (Juventus)
