Juve win Italian Super Cup Napoli beaten 4-2 after extra-time

Juventus lift the 1st trophy of the season, the Italian Super Cup. They beat Napoli 4-2 in Beijing, after extra-time. It was a tense match, packed with incident: fantastic goals, defensive errors, tough tackles, 6 goals, 3 sendings off (all Napoli: players Pandev and Zuniga and coach Mazzarri) and the inevitable controversy, always in the air, almost right from kick-off, and which continued even after the final whistle, when as a protest Napoli refused to take part in the presentation ceremony. Juventus showed a greater desire to win, and they were rewarded: they battled harder than Napoli and played with the right tactics. They refused to be beaten and never gave up, even after falling behind twice following goals from Cavani – a brilliant goal at that! – and a goal from Pandev. Asamoah, who had a fantastic 1st official game for his new club, grabbed Juve’s 1st goal, Vidal the 2nd from the penalty spot after Vucinic had been brought down in the penalty area. In extra-time, and with Napoli down to 9-men following 2 sendings off, Juve took control following an own-goal from Maggio and a 4th goal from Vucinic, who Conte had brought on (even though his No2, Carrera, was on the bench as Conte is under a 10-month touchline ban following his calcioscommesse ban) at the start of the 2nd half. For a long time it did look like Napoli would win their 2nd consecutive game against Juve, having beaten Juventus in May to win the Coppa Italia. But Napoli’s lack of fight eventually cost them - as did the fact that they looked increasingly frustrated as the game went on. Then, they started to turn on the referee when decisions started to go against them: one such decision was the award of the Juventus penalty, another the sending off of Pandev. But, from what was seen on the pitch, Napoli are good enough to push the top teams in Serie A all the way again this season, and that includes existing Serie A champions Juventus.