Juventus win Italian Super Cup in Beijing
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E-mail Xinhua, August 11, 2012
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Juventus players celebrate winning the Italian Super Cup. |
Serie A winner Juventus sank Coppa Italia champion Napoli 4-2 to win the Italian Super Cup at China's Bird Nest on Saturday.
"The win definitely boosts our morale for the coming season," said Massimo Carrera, the game coach of Juventus.
The Italian Super Cup is a curtain raiser to the new season held the week before the season begins in Italy every year.
"I am very satisfied with the attacking line, and there is no need to reinforce the defense, as long as the players appear, there should be minor mistakes," Carrera said the club will try to deliver more victories.
Juventus coach Antonio Conte has been banned for 10 months due to an investigation into match-fixing. He led the club to the Serie A title in 2011-12.
The Napoli side did not show up for the after-match press.
Sad as it was that Juventus lost 2-0 to Napoli in the Coppa Italia final in May, which Napoli denied Juventus its third domestic double.
Cavani from Uruguary opened the scoring for Napoli in the 26th minute when he was one-on-one with goalkeeper Buffon. Asamoah pulled one back on the 36th minute for Juventus with a long shot from the left wing. Four minutes later, Pandev scored an one-on-one goal following a defensive error on the Juventus side.
The score was held until the second half, when Vidal secured a 2-2 tie from a penalty on the 73rd minute.
However, luck was on the Juventus side, when two players from the rival were sent off. Pandev had a fierce word with assistant referee, and got a red card. His teammate Zuniga got second yellow card minutes later near the end of the second half.
There should be 30 minutes for added time to decide the winner if there was an even game within 90 minutes, according to the Super Cup rules.
Maggio of Napoli made an own goal when trying to save the goal in the 8th minute of added time. Juventus gradually took some advantage, and Vucinic secured the vcitory soon.
Therefore, Juventus won against Napoli 4-2 to take its fifth Super Cup title. Ironically, Napoli defeated Juventus 5-1 in Super Cup in 1989-90 season as Serie A winner, when Diego Maradona served the team.
Asamoah of Juventus was awarded the man of the match, while Pirlo was dubbed as the most popular player.
The Supercoppa Italiana (Italian Super Cup) was established in 1988 on a yearly basis. If the same team wins both Serie A and Coppa Italia, then the Super Cup is contested by the Serie A winner and the Coppa Italia runner-up.
The Bird Nest is the fourth international venue chosen for the Italian Super Cup after Washington (1993), Tripoli (2002) and New York (2003). It is the third time that Italian Super Cup was held in Bird Nest which also hosted the Italian soccer event in 2009 and 2011.
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