Juventus face last chance to extend trophy run against Inter Milan in Coppa Italia final

The Coppa Italia final in Rome on Wednesday is a Derby D’Italia, the nickname that honours the elevated status of Juventus and Inter Milan in the national sport. It will pit the holders against the reigning Serie A champions, but at a time when neither club are at risk of being carried away with a sense of their own importance.

Inter are on course, within the next 11 days, to see their scudetto removed from them by AC Milan, who lead the league table by two points with two to play. Juve, meanwhile, have swapped winning the title routinely for making fourth place their standard setting.

Retain the Cup on Wednesday and the main emotion around Juventus will be of relief at avoiding an uncomfortable landmark. In each of the last nine seasons, Juve have lifted at least one major domestic trophy. Eight times that was the Serie A title; last year it was ‘only’ the Coppa Italia, when, as a result of the meagre haul of medals, the Coppa-winning manager, Andrea Pirlo, was sacked.

Others departed, too. Last May’s Cup final, a 2-1 victory over Atalanta, featured a fine, curled opening goal from Dejan Kulusevski. Some determined pressure on the Atalanta defence by Cristiano Ronaldo helped create the chance. Gianluigi Buffon made a couple of alert saves while the final was evenly poised but could do little when Atalanta’s Ruslan Malinovskyi steered the equaliser over Rodrigo Bentancur’s attempted block. Kulusevski then set up the winner for Federico Chiesa.

A year on, Ronaldo is at Manchester United, Buffon at Parma, Kulusevski and Bentancur at Tottenham Hotspur and Pirlo between jobs, his single season as manager more associated with his failure to maintain Juve’s long record of scudetti than his success at delivering knockout