Napoli capitulate to Juventus as Ronaldo makes football history
Cristiano Ronaldo made history and won the Supercoppa for Juventus, along with a last-gasp Alvaro Morata goal, but Lorenzo Insigne fired a Napoli penalty wide.
This was the traditional clash between the Scudetto and Coppa Italia holders, but also a replay of the Coppa Italia Final played in June, when Napoli beat Juve on penalties after a 0-0 draw. The trophy is to be assigned after 90 minutes, extra time or penalties.
The Bianconeri were without Paulo Dybala, Merih Demiral, Matthijs de Ligt and Alex Sandro, but Juan Cuadrado was given the all-clear from COVID-19 this morning and thrown directly into the starting XI.
The Partenopei missed Victor Osimhen and Fabian Ruiz, with Dries Mertens not 100 per cent fit.
Cristiano Ronaldo’s snapshot was deflected over, while Wojciech Szczesny fumbled after getting into a tangle with Danilo, but Giorgio Chiellini got it away.
The first huge chance was for Napoli on 29 minutes when Diego Demme’s cross found a Chucky Lozano diving header from six yards, Szczesny making a desperate reaction save.
Ronaldo curled just past the far top corner, but while Juve had more of the ball in the first half, Napoli had the best chance.
Federico Chiesa had an ankle problem, so Federico Bernardeschi came on at half-time and almost scored within a minute. He got his toes to the Weston McKennie low cross from pointblank range, but David Ospina managed to smother it right on the line.
Ospina and Kostas Manolas got into a misunderstanding, allowing Ronaldo to sneak up and prod the ball away at the last second, but it went wide of the target.
Juve began to swarm and the pressure paid off, as first Manolas with a shinned clearance risked an own goal, then on the resulting corner it bounced off Tiemoue Bakayoko, turning into an ideal assist for Ronaldo to fire in from six yards.
It was an historic goal, his 760th in official senior games between club and country, surpassing the record of 759 set by Josef Bican.
Dries Mertens came on and made an immediate difference, as he snuck up behind McKennie and the American kicked his ankle instead of the ball. After viewing it on VAR, the penalty was inevitably.
Insigne stepped up for what would’ve been his 100th Napoli goal, but sent Szczesny the wrong way and put the spot-kick wide.
It still wasn’t over, as in stoppages a deflection almost got it level, but Szczesny stuck out a foot to parry from point-blank range.
Juve then went on the counter from the Napoli corner with Cuadrado and Alvaro Morata turned into the empty net with the last kick of the game.