Juventus got knocked out of the Coppa Italia in the quarter-finals. Again. Same round as last season, when Empoli — a team fighting relegation — sent them packing. This time it was Atalanta doing the damage at the New Balance Arena in Bergamo, and the scoreline was worse: 3-0.
The cruel part? Juve were the better side for the first 25 minutes.
Conceição hit the crossbar. Then Atalanta got a penalty.
Luciano Spalletti's team came out with intent. Francisco Conceição was a menace early on, cutting inside from the right, finding space between the lines, forcing Carnesecchi into a save. In the 20th minute, the Portuguese winger beat his man, shifted onto his left foot, and cracked a shot off the crossbar. It was the best chance of the game to that point.
Then the momentum shifted in the most Italian way possible: a penalty. Referee Fabbri pointed to the spot in the 27th minute after a challenge in the box. The decision looked debatable — Tuttosport described it as "a dir poco discutibile" — but Gianluca Scamacca didn't care about the controversy. He sent Mattia Perin the wrong way, and Atalanta led 1-0.
Scamacca's 9th goal of the season, taken with the calm of someone who'd been waiting for exactly this moment. The New Balance Arena erupted. Juventus, for all their early dominance, were suddenly chasing the game.
The second half belonged to Atalanta's bench
Spalletti tried to shift things. Jeremie Boga, the new January signing from Sassuolo making his Juve debut, came on and immediately looked sharp — his acceleration on the left created problems and he set up McKennie with an inviting ball across the six-yard box that the American couldn't convert. Lloyd Kelly headed wide from close range. Jonathan David had a chance too.
But the longer Juve pushed forward, the more they left themselves exposed at the back. Raffaele Palladino, Atalanta's coach since replacing Juric in November, had been waiting for this. He sent on Kamaldeen Sulemana and Mario Pasalic within minutes of each other — and both scored.
Sulemana, the former Rennes winger, had been on the pitch for seven minutes when Andrea Bellanova delivered a cross from the right. The Ghanaian finished from close range: 2-0 in the 77th minute. The game was over as a contest.
Pasalic made it emphatic eight minutes later. Two minutes after being introduced, the Croatian midfielder found space on the edge of the area, cut inside, and placed a diagonal shot into the bottom corner. 3-0. Perin picked the ball out of his net and barely reacted. The Juventus players around him looked like men who knew this was coming.
Palladino's quiet revolution in Bergamo
Atalanta's turnaround under Palladino has been one of the quieter stories of the Serie A season. When Juric left in November, the club had won just three of their first 12 league matches. Palladino has gone 10 wins and 2 draws in 17 games across all competitions since taking over — a run that includes wins over Roma, Bologna and Torino in January alone.
The recent form had wobbled, though. Atalanta won just one of five games heading into this tie, including a loss to Union Saint-Gilloise in the Champions League finale and a defeat to Athletic Club the week before. There were questions about whether the early momentum was fading.
This was the answer. Atalanta controlled the game's rhythm after taking the lead, defended compactly when they needed to, and then killed the match with two substitutes inside the final 15 minutes. Palladino didn't even need Charles De Ketelaere at his best — though the Belgian still earned a standing ovation when he was replaced.
Second straight quarter-final exit for Spalletti's Juve
For Juventus, this is a familiar pain. Last year, under Igor Tudor, they fell to Empoli at the same stage. This year, under Spalletti — who took over in late October and has overseen a climb from mid-table to fourth in Serie A — the Coppa Italia remains a blind spot.
Spalletti didn't hold a pre-match press conference, so there were no tactical clues beforehand. The lineup suggested he took this seriously: Bremer, Kalulu and Gatti in defence, Conceição and Cambiaso on the flanks, David up front. Kenan Yildiz — 8 goals and 4 assists in the league this season — was on the bench, reportedly due to a muscular niggle.
Whether Yildiz would have changed anything is impossible to say. What's clear is that Juve's inability to convert early pressure into goals — Conceição's crossbar, McKennie's miss, Kelly's header — left the door open for an Atalanta team that punishes you when you give them the chance. And Juve gave them three.
Atalanta will face the winner of Bologna-Lazio in the semi-finals. Juventus go back to Serie A and a match against Lazio this weekend, with the memory of another cup quarter-final exit following them around. At some point you'd think they'd learn. So far, no sign of it.
