20 January 2021
Cristiano Ronaldo and Alvaro Morata’s goals lead Juventus to their ninth Italian Super Cup trophy on Wednesday evening, as they defeated Napoli at the Mapei Stadium. It was a game of few chances, but one in which the Bianconeri seized their moment and brought home the silverware.
GOALLESS AT THE BREAK
Andrea Pirlo was able to welcome the return of Juan Cuadrado into the starting XI after testing negative to Covid-19. The opening 25 minutes saw both teams taking the approach of studying their adversaries, with few goalscoring chances presenting itself. The first real chance of the game came in the 28th minute when Mario Rui crossed the ball into the box for Lozano, who struck a dangerous header that saw Szczesny make an incredible reflex save to push it out. As the half progressed, the Bianconeri started pushing for an opening goal, as they saw Ronaldo blaze his effort over the bar five minutes from the break.
RONALDO OPENS THE SCORING
The second half saw Bernardeschi come on in place of Chiesa, and he nearly grabbed an immediate lead when he got onto the end of McKennie’s cross, which was saved by Ospina on the line. Manolas nearly scored an own goal off Ronaldo’s cross, before the Portuguese eventually grabbed the lead in the 64th minute when he sliced home the ball from six yards out, capitalising from a Napoli defensive error.
NAPOLI MISS PENALTY
Napoli were awarded a penalty in the 78th minute when Var judged McKennie to have made contact inside the box with Mertens. Insigne stood up to take the spot kick and he blasted wide of goal to keep the scoreline in favour of Juventus. With seven minutes to spare, Rabiot and Morata were brought on in place of Bentancur and Kulusevski, as Napoli continued to seek an equalizer to send the game into extra time.
MORATA WRAPS UP THE VICTORY
It nearly happened when Szczesny pulled off an excellent save to deny Napoli with his leg, that then resulted in a Bianconeri breakaway and they doubled the lead through Morata: Juan Cuadrado delivered the cross and the Spaniard slotted it home into the back of an empty net.
Juventus: Szczesny; Cuadrado, Bonucci, Chiellini, Danilo; McKennie, Bentancur (Rabiot 83’), Arthur, Chiesa (Bernardeschi 46’); Kulusevski (Morata 83’), Ronaldo
Juventus bench: Pinsoglio, Buffon, Ramsey, Morata, Rabiot, Bernardeschi, Di Pardo, Dragusin, Frabotta, Fagioli, F Ranocchia
Napoli: Ospina; Di Lorenzo; Manolas, Koulibaly, Mario Rui; Bakayoko, Demme; Lozano, Zielinski, Insigne; Petagna
Napoli bench: Meret, Contini, Elmas, Mertens, Llorente, Maksimovic, Politano, Hysaj, Ghoulam, Rrahmani, Cioffi, Lobotka
