The curtain falls at this year of Italian football (or, at least, when it comes to Serie A teams)!
And it dropped in what a manner. This year’s Supercoppa brought the game between title holders, Juventus, and Napoli, the winners of last season’s national Cup. Game was supposed to be played, as usual, right at the start of the season, at the end of August, actually, but since Napoli was busy playing and preparing for Champions League qualifiers in the time, match was re-scheduled for the end of the year.
It could have been assumed that a Supercup match at the half of the season would kill the charm, but the outcome of tonight’s game, being played in Doha, undeceived everyone who had, possibly, shared that thought. We have seen an exciting match with four goals and a nine-series penalty shootout, all with Argentine superstars, Carlos Tevez and Gonzalo Higuain, as the main protagonists.
Tevez opened the scoring after just a few minutes – Albiol and Coulibaly collided in the air, and the Argentine exploited a huge blunder from Napoli’s center-backs with a nice finish. Napoli did have a few good chances, hitting the post twice (one lob from Higuain was particularly unlucky), but the equalizer eventually came in the 67th minute – De Guzman’s cross found the Argentine in the six-yard box and his header was clinical.
The game went into an extra-time and both Tevez and Higuain scored once more. Former Manchester City attacker again found the net at the beginning of the second extra-time, but Higuain responded three minutes before the end with a skilful shot, shooting the ball while falling down with Gianluigi Buffon went the other side.
Penalty-shootout has seen an amazing nine series and, symbolically, Tevez missed the penalty, Higuain hadn’t. After the first six series, in which only Tevez and Jorginho missed their shots, next two were scoreless and since Kalidou Koulibaly finally hit the net, it was Padoin who needed to score to extend the game. However, Cabral made a nice save for a big celebration which will definitely boost the morale of the Rafa Benitez’s struggling side.
Juvntus vs Napoli Supercup Final in Doha - Extended Highlights