Napoli celebrates in the Saudi Arabian capital Riyadh! In the Supercoppa Italia final, the reigning Serie A champions prove too strong for the current cup winners Bologna. David Neres is the man of the match.
For the sixth time, the Italian Football Federation hosted the Supercoppa in Saudi Arabia, where Napoli and Bologna faced each other in the final after their semi-final victories.
At Al-Awwal Park in the capital Riyadh, SSC coach Antonio Conte stuck to the principle of “never change a winning team” after the 2-0 win against Milan and once again fielded the technically skilled midfielders McTominay and Lobotka, as well as David Neres, Elmas and Höjlund up front.
Meanwhile, reigning cup winners Bologna coach Vincenzo Italiano made two changes to his lineup after a thrilling 3-2 penalty shootout win over Inter Milan: Bernardeschi and Moro were benched, with Ferguson and Cambiaghi starting in their place.
David Neres for the first time
But even with the fresh players, FCB couldn’t get anything going in the first half. Instead, the Neapolitans dominated from the start, moving the ball around and creating plenty of chances. It started with Elmas, who missed a chance to make it 1-0 from a slightly acute angle (10th minute).
After just over half an hour, McTominay also failed to get past the alert FCB goalkeeper Ravaglia (31st minute), who was also on hand in the 36th minute after an outstanding SSC combination in a one-on-one with Spinazzola. However, Ravaglia was beaten by a magnificent curling shot into the left corner from David Neres (39th minute). The southern Italians thus took a well-deserved lead into the break …
David Neres strikes again
… and maintained it confidently after the restart. The uninspired Bologna side continued to struggle to create anything, while at the other end, Höjlund (47th and 54th) and Rrahmani (48th) missed chances to make it 2-0. This almost came back to haunt them when, after a rare cross (Orsolini), Ferguson found himself unmarked in front of goal but headed the ball straight into the open arms of SSC goalkeeper Milinkovic-Savic (56′).
This missed equalizer promptly came back to haunt them, as on the other side, immediately after a misplaced pass by the usually attentive Ravaglia, David Neres was lurking in the right place and coolly finished with a chip over the diving Bologna keeper to make it 2-0 (57′).
That sealed the deal, and the reigning champions from Naples secured their third title in this competition after 1990 and 2014, becoming the new Supercoppa winners and thus the successors to Milan. Höjlund, Lang (both 70′), Politano (72′), McTominay with a fine side-foot shot (79′) and substitute Lang (90’+3) could have increased the score even further against an opponent who was completely outclassed overall.
