Puro Calcio by Alessandro Bazzoni

Inter Milan might have thrown the first punch on Tuesday night, but it was Juventus that ended up getting back up off the mat and doing enough to win this fight.

Thanks to a Cristiano Ronaldo first-half brace and some good, old-fashioned Inter comedy at the back, Juventus was able to bounce back after going a goal down and hang on after the halftime break to claim a 2-1 win in the first leg of the Coppa Italia semifinals at the San Siro. While it might have looked like history could be repeating itself 2 1⁄2 weeks after Juventus were throttled by Inter in the same stadium, Andrea Pirlo’s squad was able to do exactly what they didn’t in the Jan. 17 loss to Inter — right the ship.

Call it a microcosm for how the team has bounced back over the last couple of weeks since the loss to Inter in Milan, but the fact that they had an immediate response in this game was the biggest thing they needed to do to make sure they headed back to Turin for the second leg with a couple away goals in their pocket and an advantage on the scoreline.

Just look at the immediate response Juve had to falling behind.

There was no wobbling, no sort of dip. Instead, Juventus pushed forward, earning a penalty kick all of 15 minutes after they fell behind. (Sure, there needed to be VAR to overturn the initial call, but anybody who saw it realized that it was simply a formality based on the replays.) Thanks to Ronaldo pressing and Inter’s breakdown in communication, the lead was Juve’s to take not so long after they tied it up. (That finish with the kiss off the post — beautiful.)

That was the kind of response you want to see every time your team falls behind.

And Juventus delivered just that when they needed it the most and be able to flip the scoreline in their favor well before halftime arrived.

Let’s face it, this game was wide open — especially as the second half went on — and could have easily had a couple more goals to it at the very least. But, as we’ve seen from Juventus in recent weeks, just because things are going a little haywire and things might not be totally routine it doesn’t always spell doom ahead of them. They obviously weren’t in complete control like games past the last two weeks, but what could have been a lot worse turned out to be simple moments when our hearts dropped into our stomachs

This game was all over the place. The second half was especially all over the place, and how it proved to be 45-plus minutes without a goal is completely beyond me with how many chances that were created.

But, thankfully, Juventus didn’t do what they did against Inter 2 1⁄2 weeks ago. Because of that, Juve’s chances of making the Coppa Italia final once again this season are that much greater now with a home game awaiting them in the second leg. The away goals help, too.