JACK Wright's (@JackWright_BSB) oversees Wednesday night's Coppa Italia final as Atalanta take on Juventus.
Atalanta vs Juventus | Wednesday 19th May 2021, 19:45 | BT Sport
After Inter Milan cruised their way to Scudetto, the one remaining piece of Italian silverware is up for grabs, as their nearest rivals Atalanta take on a Juventus side not only looking to avoid a first trophyless season in a decade but also missing out on a top four Serie A finish.
Andrea Pirlo's will desperately be looking to end a troubled, disappointing season with a winner's medal by putting a 14th Coppa trophy in the bulging Allianz Stadium Honours room, while in contrast, if successful, opposite number Gian Piero Gasperini will be aiming to secure a first major trophy for his club side since 1963!
Surely the neutral amongst us will be hoping that dream comes true for La Dea as due reward for entertaining us over the last 24 months with their brand of entertaining, attacking football with goal fests a plenty – and I for one think that is a distinct possibility.
The Nerazzurri are unbeaten against the Old Lady since 2019, wining and drawing the league games this term, they also have a bit of momentum on their side, although Juve's unpredictability but obvious quality means that it should be an entertaining game – especially with a certain Cristiano Ronaldo waiting to play chief party pooper.
Atalanta come in to this final unbeaten in eleven league fixtures, winning nine and scoring a prolific 30 goals in the process at an average of 2.73 per game, they have also only failed to score in just two of their last ten domestic cup matches, netting an average of 2.0 goals per game.
For those reasons I’m going all in on Atalanta with no need to over complicate things with the price attractive enough in its own right – so, two singles here a straight win inside 90 minutes at odds of 6/4 with Sky Bet and an angle in on the goal line which I was surprised to find as big as 5/4 with Sky Bet for La Dea to score 2+ goals.
My final angle had to come in the cards markets – not only penciled in because of the occasion and that eight of the last nine meetings between the two sides have featured at least five yellow cards, but confirmed in ink when Davide Massa was appointed as referee.
With 76, The 39-year-old official has the fifth highest collection of Serie A cautions this campaign, added to showing four red cards – an average of 4.47 per game which is a little lower than his lifetime average of 5.4 yellows per Coppa Italia appearance of which there has only been seven – however, he has still managed to dismiss five players in that tiny sample size – this is his first domestic cup engagement of the season.
Massa was in charge of one of these clubs just last week as Benevento visited the Gewiss Stadium in Bergamo, cautioning Marten de Roon and Josip Ilicic for the home side but distributed three yellows to Stregoni players before two cautions in two minutes for Luca Caldirola which of course led to a red.
With the cards line set around 4.5 and prohibitively priced I am siding with one of the sides to pick up over 2.5 cards individually, given how Atalanta attack and that Juventus have crossed that line in seven of the aforementioned head to heads I will take them to do so again at 1/1 with Bet 365.
Let’s sit back and enjoy what should be a thoroughly entertaining Coppa Italia final.
Best Bets
Atalanta vs Juventus – Atalanta to win (6/4 Sky Bet)
Atalanta vs Juventus – Atalanta Over 1.5 Goals (5/4 SkyBet)
Atalanta vs Juventus – Juventus Over 2.5 Cards (1/1 Bet365)
