David Neres scored two goals to help SSC Napoli win the Supercoppa Italiana for the third time in their history after a 2-0 victory over Bologna at the King Saud University Stadium in Saudi Arabia.
Image/Napoli
After defeating the reigning champions AC Milan in the semi-final just four days earlier, Napoli came into the game with confidence.
They had been losing their previous two matches to Benfica and Udinese, but the Partenopei were clearly the better team in the first half.
They created a great opportunity to take the lead within 10 minutes when Scott McTominay passed the ball to Eljif Elmas inside the area.
Despite having plenty of time and space to shoot, the Macedonian player sent his effort wide of the left post when he was one-on-one with Vanja Milinković-Savić.
Neres made no mistake when his second chance came around, scoring to give Napoli the lead six minutes before half time.
The Brazilian ran 25 yards from goal and struck a left-footed shot that flew over Federico Ravaglia and into the top left-hand corner of the net.
Neres has now opened the scoring in each of his last four matches where he has scored.
Bologna, on the other hand, had a familiar feeling of conceding first for the seventh time in a row.
Although Bologna were disappointed with their first-half performance, they knew they were still in the game and could turn things around at any moment.
However, just 12 minutes into the second half, they were at fault for falling two goals behind.
Trying to play their way out of trouble, Ravaglia passed the ball to Jhon Lucumi under pressure, and the defender was quickly dispossessed by Neres, who calmly dinked the ball over the onrushing goalkeeper to double Napoli’s lead.
This was only the fifth time in Napoli’s last 14 games that they had scored more than one goal in a match.
Bologna tried hard to get back into the game, but despite losing the previous two finals without scoring, Napoli handled the pressure well and kept their cool to finish the match and make their supporters’ trip to the Middle East worthwhile.
Antonio Conte has now won this competition six times, three as a player and three as a manager, continuing his journey to be remembered as one of the greatest Italian managers of all time.