Football
Ben Gladwell, Italy correspondent 7y

Juventus' Max Allegri eyes 'fantastic' season after Coppa Italia win

Massimiliano Allegri complimented an "extraordinary" Juventus in the wake of their 2-0 Coppa Italia final victory over Lazio on Wednesday.

Juve kept their Treble hopes alive with victory at the Stadio Olimpico and can follow up their first trophy of the season with a second if they beat Crotone to clinch the Serie A title on Sunday.

They then face Real Madrid in the Champions League final on June 3, when they can turn a great season into a fantastic one, according to Allegri.

"I've got to compliment the lads for what they have done -- they were extraordinary," Allegri told RAI television. "Now on Sunday we've got another big appointment -- to win the league. All the lads are playing a great season and now we have to make it a fantastic one.

"Crotone have picked up 17 points in their last seven games, so we are going to have to be as ruthless as we were tonight. We need a win on Sunday."

That will then need to be followed by another win two weeks later if Juve are to replicate arch-rivals Inter Milan by winning a cup, league and Champions League Treble in the same order that Jose Mourinho & Co. achieved it in 2010.

"This is our first objective reached today, and now we want to win the Scudetto," said Leonardo Bonucci. "The defeat to Roma at the weekend did us good. It hit the headlines because it doesn't happen often that we play like that. We were not nasty enough and we've worked very seriously in these past few days and knew we had to play this game like this, now we've got 20 intense days to go.

"Sunday is another cup final to seal our second objective of the season, then we all go to Cardiff together."

Full-back Dani Alves opened the scoring for Juventus on Wednesday, continuing his rich vein of form, but Allegri refused to single the former Barcelona man out for praise.

"To talk about a single player would be disrespectful to the others. It's down to everyone that we got this, our first objective," Allegri said.

"Congratulations to the boys, because they were amazing."

Meanwhile, Lazio coach Simone Inzaghi felt his side did not get the rub of the green on the night, although he paid tribute to the Bianconeri.

"They are Champions League finalists, but they were up against a side who put them to the test tonight and we were not fortunate either, because at 0-0 we could have gone in front with Keita's shot which deflected off an arm against the post, and the game would have changed," he said.

"This is not taking anything away from Juve, but we lost two players against Fiorentina on Saturday due to injury and we got the feeling then already that things were not going our way. Maybe with a bit of luck, it could have gone differently. We're sorry to have lost, but compliments to my lads."

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