Article 55 — The 1st Trophy In Italy Goes To Napoli!
In theory, the first trophy contested in Italy was the Supercoppa Italiana, the traditional curtain-raiser for the season between last season’s league champions, Juventus and Coppa Italia winners, Lazio. Lazio won it 3–1. The curtain-raiser should have been played before the start of the season but because it was played in Saudi Arabia, it was not possible to play there in the heat of the summer thus it was played in December 2019.
The first competitive trophy that was contested this season was the Coppa Italia. Due to the enforced Corona Virus pandemic break, the remaining matches in the Coppa was contested in a space of 4–5 days instead of the usual space of a month between semi-final 2nd leg and final.
If you are not at all in-tune with what is going on in Italian football, Juventus qualified for the final through the away goals rule against AC Milan after a 1–1 aggregate and Napoli qualified with an aggregate 2–1 win over Inter. In my previous post on this topic, I had mentioned that I hoped Napoli would upset the odds to beat Juventus. To find out more, you can read it here: https://medium.com/@rasfootballworld/article-51-inter-spoiling-my-mood-in-the-morning-d6e454044068
Juventus and Napoli played each other in the final on Wednesday night in Italy, early Thursday morning here. I didn’t watch the match as explained in the article above and also because I don’t want to waste my sleep watching a match that didn’t involve my team. From the match highlights and the match report, Juventus had the first real chance to break the deadlock but Cristiano Ronaldo’s shot was denied by Napoli’s stand-in goalkeeper in the Coppa Italia, Alex Meret. Napoli’s first choice for Coppa matches, David Ospina was suspended.
Napoli then went on to fashion the best chances in the game. Gianluigi Buffon at the ripe old age of 42 years old and the woodwork were the only obstructions in Napoli’s path to scoring. The only time neither was called into action was when Arkadiusz Milik blasted over from 12 yards out after a beautiful and fluid passing move. Juventus had the ball in the Napoli half but laboured to break down the Neapolitan defence.
There were to be no extra-time as the match somehow finished 0–0. In the lottery of the penalty shootout, Napoli won 4–2 after Paulo Dybala had his penalty saved and Danilo missed his. Napoli’s penalty takers, Lorenzo Insigne, Matteo Politano, Nikola Maksimovic and Milik were all faultless from the penalty spot. Napoli repeated their 2012 feat of beating the same opponent in the Coppa Italia final and won the Coppa for the first time since 2013–14.
It was Napoli manager, Gennaro Gattuso’s first trophy as a manager. It had personal significance for him as well. Gattuso’s sister passed away at the age of 37 years old after suffering from a rare illness early in June. Victory in football cannot supersede a personal tragedy but it could still give some relief and warmth to the grieving man and his family.
As an Inter fan, you can’t help but feel that it could have been us as the winners of the Coppa as Napoli beat us to get to the final. However, because it is us in the final, it might have stirred up a stronger performance from Juventus. We never know what would have happened had we got there. We can take some consolation from our bitter rivals, Juventus not winning the final. It will also deny them the opportunity of winning the Treble, still, a feat unmatched by any other Italian club.
As a neutral, it is good for Italian football that at least for a second season in a row, Juventus will not make a clean sweep of the major trophies in Italy. Juventus have not had a consistent season so far, at least not at the level they are accustomed to yet they find themselves top of the table in Serie A by a slender margin. Maurizio Sarri was appointed with the idea of getting the team to play better football which goes against Juventus’ philosophy of winning at all costs regardless of the style of play. As a result, we have seen Juventus play in fits and starts.
There is a clash of philosophies between manager and club so now is as good an opportunity as ever to capitalise and end Juventus’ reign as Champions of Italy. I have great respect for Juventus’ strong winning mentality and a champion team is always the most dangerous when it is wounded like they must be now. They look lethargic, rusty and out of ideas in their two Coppa games against Milan and Napoli. Even Cristiano Ronaldo can’t help them and isn’t any better than most of his team-mates in his performances. They contrived to score 0 goals in 2 games. Would 4 days of rest before they play again be enough to get them back into the groove? I am not sure. What I fear the most is their mentality. I would be wary to write them off just yet even though it looks like there is a great opportunity for a team other than Juventus to win the league title this season.
