Lazio have won their fifth Supercoppa Italiana, beating Juventus 3-1 in Riyadh with Luis Alberto, Senad Lulic and Danilo Cataldi goals.
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Lazio have won their fifth Supercoppa Italiana, beating Juventus 3-1 in Riyadh with Luis Alberto, Senad Lulic and Danilo Cataldi goals.
Follow all the action as it happens and give your views on the LIVEBLOG.
This was the fifth time these sides had met for the Italian Supercup, with two wins each. They had clashed only two weeks ago in Serie A with Lazio emerging 3-1 winners, so far the only defeat suffered by Maurizio Sarri on the Juve bench.
Sarri again used Cristiano Ronaldo, Paulo Dybala and Gonzalo Higuain together, but Merih Demiral and Mattia De Sciglio were preferred to Matthijs de Ligt and Juan Cuadrado, with Giorgio Chiellini and Sami Khedira injured. Simone Inzaghi had a full squad to choose from and picked his ideal XI.
Luis Alberto had the first chance, firing inches over from the edge of the box, caught on the shin on the way down by Blaise Matuidi for a bookable offence.
The Spaniard also got the goal after a well-worked Lazio move. Senad Lulic shrugged off Mattia De Sciglio at the by-line, crossed for Sergej Milinkovic-Savic at the back post, who laid it off for Luis Alberto to fire into the roof of the net from 12 yards.
Immobile sprinted forward on to a long ball, but Merih Demiral showed why he had been chosen rather than Matthijs de Ligt, keeping up the pace and making the tackle.
Ronaldo drilled wide on Higuain’s assist, while Dybala fired over after CR7 picked a smart through ball. La Joya curled a free kick just wide of the far top corner, but at the other end Szczesny had to get down for a tricky one-handed save on Joaquin Correa, Immobile almost latching on to the rebound.
Juve equalised on the stroke of half-time, as Ronaldo’s daisy-cutter went through Luiz Felipe’s legs from the edge of the box and Thomas Strakosha got a hand to it, but Dybala sprung the offside trap to turn in the rebound.
Manuel Lazzari lost his footing when running towards goal, while Dybala and Milinkovic-Savic came sliding in at the back post a fraction too late to meet the Stefan Radu cross.
Luis Alberto tried to curl in directly from the corner flag, testing Szczesny at the near top corner, and on another set play Correa’s header whistled just wide.
Ronaldo’s rocket skimmed the crossbar from the edge of the box, but Lazio again restored their advantage with a well-worked goal.
Marco Parolo’s cross from the right was flicked on by Milikovic-Savic and found Lulic at the back post, where he placed a splendid volley off the inside of the right boot back across into the far top corner.
Felipe Caicedo came off the bench and immediately sent Correa clear on goal to score, but Tucu was marginally offside when starting the run from midfield.
Strakosha had to be sharp on a smart Dybala diving header at the near post and Juve constantly pumped crosses into the box, with Leonardo Bonucci’s header just wide.
Instead, Lazio went on the counter from a Dybala free kick into the wall, Szczesny came out to deny Correa and Bentancur’s foul – a second bookable offence – prevented Marco Parolo turning in the rebound from the edge of the box.
On that free kick, Danilo Cataldi smashed it in off the underside of the bar for Lazio 3-1 Juventus, the same result as in Serie A on December 7.
Juventus 1-3 Lazio
Luis Alberto 17 (L), Dybala 45 (J), Lulic 73 (L), Cataldi 94 (L)
Juventus: Szczesny; De Sciglio (Cuadrado 55), Bonucci, Demiral, Alex Sandro; Bentancur, Pjanic, Matuidi (Douglas Costa 76); Dybala, Higuain (Ramsey 66), Ronaldo
Lazio: Strakosha; Luiz Felipe, Acerbi, Radu; Lazzari, Milinkovic-Savic, Lucas Leiva (Cataldi 64), Luis Alberto (Parolo 67), Lulic; Immobile (Caicedo 82), Correa
Ref: Calvarese
Sent off: Bentancur 93 (J)