Devis Vásquez, brilliant in the Italian Cup: he saved a penalty and Juventus was eliminated; video

Colombian goalkeeper Devis Vásquez was one of the great figures of Empoli, who on Wednesday qualified for the semi-finals of the Italian Cup.

Juventus Turin suffered another disaster of the season by losing at home to Empoli on penalties (2-4), after a 1-1 draw in regular time.

It was a very poor match, saved by a stroke of genius from Khephren Thuram, but ultimately lost on penalties due to errors from the Serbian Dusan Vlahovic and the Turkish Kenan Yildiz.

Juventus returned to their old ways at the Stadium after their disastrous Champions League tie against PSV. Not even against Empoli, a team fighting for survival in Serie A, was the team led by the Italian-Brazilian Thiago Motta able to be superior, and they are starting to run out of excuses for the poor play - and the few results - of their team.

After this embarrassing elimination, the only team left to compete in is Serie A, where they will have to fight to stay in the top 4.

Juventus tried Serbian Dusan Vlahovic and Frenchman Kolo Muani as their first starting attacking duo after the trial in the Serie A match against Cagliari in which they coincided for a few minutes. It didn't work out well for them. Neither of them scored.

In fact, the start of the match already gave evidence of the poor form of the Turin team. Juve had to make amends for an error in the ball output by the Argentine Nico Gonzalez that left the team exposed in the 25th minute, wide open and unprotected against the Moroccan Youssef Maleh, who scored the first of the goals of the night with a shot from the edge of the box that was impossible for the Italian Mattia Perin to beat.

Juventus suffered greatly after the goal and were close to conceding another, but the blunder by the Bianconeri defence was only a scare as the woodwork got in the way of Italian Ismael Konate's shot.

Shortly afterwards, Frenchman Junior Sambia once again put the Juventus goalkeeper under heavy pressure. Only a giant flash of quality from Frenchman Kephren Thuram was able to keep alive a very inconsistent team, unable to sustain its good streak.

The midfielder came up with a beautiful dribble in the 66th minute, with a backheel on the goal line, to get into a great position and score the equaliser that took the tie, without extra time, directly to penalties, which ultimately proved fatal.

Vlahovic was the first to take the shot and missed from the eleven metres. Kolo Muani, his rival, did score. But the Turkish Kenan Yildiz, Juventus's jewel, sentenced 'Juve' with another error: Vásquez saved and left qualification on the table.

Empoli deservedly secured their place in the semi-finals, where they will face Bologna for a place in the final.