Neres shines in Riyadh: Napoli win Supercoppa, Bologna out! | OneFootball

The Brazilian carnival starts well in advance, with Napoli winning the first trophy of the season. A great first half by Conte's team often puts Bologna in difficulty. The team dressed in blue creates several goal opportunities with Hojlund, McTominay, and Neres. Italiano's formation struggles to respond, and before the break, the Brazilian scores with a dazzling rainbow shot, beating Ravaglia. In the second half, Bologna starts well but then the red and blue goalkeeper and Lucumì make a mess, allowing Neres to take advantage and make it 2-0 with a chip shot. Samba

In Riyadh, it's “Neres nights”: Napoli wins the League Super Cup, goodbye Bologna!

It could have ended with a much larger deficit, but so it goes. Conte received an early Christmas gift, a (super) Italian cup from one thousand and one nights, well-deserved.

A goal in each half by an extraordinary David Neres gives Napoli the third Italian Super Cup in its history, after those in 1990 and 2014. In Riyadh, the blues clearly surpass Bologna by Italiano 2-0, in a final dominated and with a score that could have been even higher.

Napoli repeatedly creates chances in the first half, coming close to scoring several times before finding the net in the 39th minute: Neres invents a magnificent left-footed shot from outside the area that goes into the top corner. In the second half, the script doesn’t change, and the Brazilian doubles the score by taking advantage of a construction error by Bologna: he intercepts Ravaglia’s pass to Lucumì and with a soft chip, secures his personal double. In between, however, there is much more than just the scoreline. Spinazzola nearly scores, Elmas, Højlund, and Politano repeatedly come close to a third goal, while the widespread feeling is that the match could completely open up at any moment.

Emblematic, in this sense, is a phrase caught on the sidelines by Antonio Conte, which summarizes the blue evening better than any analysis: “We should have scored more.” A statement that says everything about the mentality of a Napoli never satisfied, not even in a final won with authority. Stronger. Simply stronger.

It is the first Super Cup of the Antonio Conte era and the seventh trophy under the presidency of De Laurentiis, bringing the club’s total history to 14 titles. Great satisfaction also at the economic and strategic level: this victory guarantees Napoli about 11 million euros and strengthens the club's visibility in the Asian market.

NAPOLI-BOLOGNA 2-0 39′ and 57′ Neres

NAPOLI (3-4-3): Milinkovic-Savic 6.5; Di Lorenzo 6.5, Rrahmani 6.5, Juan Jesus 6.5 (84′ Buongiorno NG); Politano 6, Lobotka 6.5, McTominay 6.5, Spinazzola 6.5 (68′ Gutierrez 6.5): David Neres 9 (78′ Mazzocchi NG), Hojlund 7.5, Elmas 6 (68′ Lang 6.5). Coach Conte 7.5

BOLOGNA (4-2-3-1): Ravaglia 5; Holm 5.5, Heggem 5, Lucumì 4.5, Miranda 5.5; Pobega 5, Ferguson 5 (68′ Dallinga 5.5); Orsolini 6 (80′ Dominguez NG), Odgaard 5 (46′ Moro 5), Cambiaghi 5 (68′ Rowe 5); Castro 5.5 (80′ Immobile NG). Coach Italiano 5.5.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇮🇹 here.