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Two-goal hero Medhi Benatia lauds Juventus after Coppa Italia triumph

Medhi Benatia has praised Juventus’ 'winning mentality' and 'unity' after winning the 2017-18 Coppa Italia title.

The defender scored a brace as the Allianz Stadium outfit thrashed AC Milan 4-0 on Wednesday night to win the Italian Cup for a record 13th time.

Benatia opened the scoring with his 56th-minute header and added his second goal eight minutes later as Douglas Costa and Nikola Kalinic completed the riot for the Turin outfit.

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Meanwhile, the Morocco international who was initially criticised for poor defensive performance against Napoli last month is glad to have proved critics wrong with his heroic.

“It’s pleasing to see our fans so happy, so proud of us. It was an important objective for this year, once again we gave an incredible response,” Benatia was quoted as saying by Football-Italia.

“Juventus always do something special, it’s not the first time. This group wrote their names in the history books of Italian football. We have a winning mentality, there is a great unity and we can continue.

“After my error on the marking for Kalidou Koulibaly, everyone said I was useless. I haven’t become fantastic now and I wasn’t useless then.

“After that mistake in the defeat to Napoli, I felt bad for a few days, but fortunately the lads completed the job and I thank them for being close to me. I gave my contribution, nothing more.”

With just a point away from this winning this season's Serie A crown, Maxi Allegri’s men are aiming to complete their fourth domestic double in a row when they visit Roma on Sunday.

“The Scudetto is the main target and I’ll be glad if we do it here, because I had an extraordinary campaign at Roma and it’s a special stadium for me," he added.

“When you see the likes of Buffon, Barzagli and Lichtsteiner, you realise that at Juventus you never give up. This is Juventus.

“We might be criticised for not playing beautiful football, but we had over 90 points in Serie A and the Coppa Italia for the fourth year running.”

 

Soirée de rêve 🏆 ⚪️⚫️ #FORZAJUVE #FINOALLAFINE

A post shared by Medhi Benatia (@m.benatia5) on

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