Juventus clinch ninth Supercoppa Italiana title, Pirlo reacts after winning first trophy as manager

Serie A holders Juventus clinched their ninth Supercoppa Italiana title after a 2-0 triumph over Napoli at the Mapei Stadium last night. The game had few chances during the opening half where Juventus failed to register a single shot on target.

Napoli came closest to scoring with a bullet header from Hirving Lozano midway through the first half, but it was brilliantly saved by Bianconeri goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny.

Otherwise, it was a rather cagey encounter with both teams content to go into the break without conceding. The same trend continued until the hour mark before the reigning Italian champions found the breakthrough.

Cristiano Ronaldo gave Juventus the lead in the 64th minute after he was gifted with the ball in the six-yard box after an unfortunate deflection off Napoli midfielder Tiemoue Bakayoko from a corner.

Lorenzo Insigne had the chance to put Napoli level in the 80th minute from the penalty spot, but the Italy international squandered the opportunity. It was his third miss from a spot kick against Juventus in all competitions.

With seconds left on the watch, Juventus put the result beyond doubt after substitute Alvaro Morata registered his 10th goal of the campaign on the counter-attack after lovely link-up play with Juan Cuadrado.

The victory meant that Andrea Pirlo picked up his first-ever silverware as manager and following the game, the 41-year-old expressed his delight after his team bounced back from the disappointing league defeat at Inter.

“It is a great joy to win a trophy. It is even more beautiful than winning as a player. It is difficult to see beautiful finals. It was important to win above all after the defeat against Inter. We had to show our pride,” He told Rai Sport.

The annual competition has been played in Saudi Arabia over the past couple of years, but Wednesday’s match was arranged at the Mapei Stadium owned by Sassuolo due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The previous encounter between the sides in the Coppa Italia needed penalties after a 0-0 draw and it appeared that there could be a similar occurrence last night after the first half display.

The Bianconeri, however, showed their quality with their two leading frontmen in Ronaldo and Morata finding the back of the net for them to reclaim the Supercoppa Italiana title.

Stats from Transfermarkt.com