Napoli defeated Juventus on penalties to win the Supercoppa Italiana at the Jassim Bin Hamad Stadium in Doha, Qatar on Monday evening after the match ended 2-2 following extra time.
Gonzalo Higuain twice pulled the Partenopei level after Carlos Tevez had given Juve the lead during the 120 minutes before an epic penalty shoot out ended when Rafael Cabral saved from Simone Padoin in sudden death.
The Coppa Italia holders began the match twelve points behind Serie A leaders Juventus, but had the first opening in the match with Higuain claiming for a penalty as Giorgio Chiellini awkwardly controlled the ball with his knee before it stuck his arm.
Referee Paolo Valeri dismissed the appeal as Napoli were awarded a corner, but it was the Bianconeri that took the lead with their first shot of the game after a defensive mix-up between Raul Albiol and Kalidou Koulibaly.
The central defenders collided as they both looked to deal with a misplaced header back from David Lopez allowing Tevez through on goal to calmly side foot the ball through the legs of Rafael.
The Partenopei managed to recover from the early set back and almost equalised as Chiellini failed to deal with a looping cross from right back Christian Maggio. The ball fell to captain Marek Hamsik and his low shot deflected off the central defender onto the post.
Rafael then twice denied Tevez in quick succession as he first parried away a powerful shot that came from a Fernando Llorente knock down and then made a smart save down to his left side to concede a corner.
Both sides were enjoying short spells of pressure in a competitive first-half with Stephan Lichtsteiner testing Rafael again from after a one-two with Arturo Vidal and Gianluigi Buffon pushed away a curling Higuain shot.
Pirlo was caught in possession as Hamsik played a precise pass that split the Juve defence through for Jose Callejon, but he dragged his shot across goal.
Napoli continued to push forward and Higuain was desperately unlucky as he chipped the ball over Buffon from a very tight angle only for the ball to hit outside of the post.
Pirlo was withdrawn for Roberto Pereyra and the substitute was unable to prevent Jonathan de Guzman from delivering a cross for Higuain to equalise with a close-range header into the bottom-right corner.
Both sides introduced fresh legs as Dries Mertens was introduced for Hamsik and Padoin replaced Lichtsteiner, although Juve had the best opportunities in the final minutes of normal time as Vidal and Tevez dragged shots wide.
Juventus continued to pile on the pressure in the first-half of extra time and Koulibaly made a goal-line clearance to deny Vidal from converting Evra’s cutback from the byline.
Both sides made their final substitutions in the second-half of extra time with Alvaro Morata replacing Llorente and Jorginho was introduced for de Guzman.
Morata made an immediate impact as he was involved in the build up for Juventus retaking the lead.
Paul Pogba played the ball to Tevez, who showed great trickery to escape Koulibaly before firing a low shot into the bottom-left corner.
Buffon needed to be alert first denying Higuain after he managed to get in behind the Juve back four and then sliding in ahead of Callejon to clear after Leonardo Bonucci nearly made a terrible error on the edge of his own box.
However, Higuain was to equalise again with just two minutes remaining as he slid in between Padoin and Chiellini to poke home a finish that wrong footed Buffon.
The penalty shoot out started spectacularly as Buffon first denied Jorginho and Tevez hit the post before the rest were all converted before sudden death.
Mertens and Chiellini both missed on the seventh round of penalties, before Buffon saved from Callejon and Pereyra failed to hit the target.
Koulibaly scored with his penalty going in off the left-hand post and Padoin failed to cope with the pressure as Rafael dived the correct way.
Napoli’s win is only the seventh time out of the previous twenty seven Supercoppa Italiana matches that the Coppa Italia holders have defeated the Serie A champions.
The Partenopei are also the first Coppa Italia holders to win the Supercoppa Italiana since Lazio defeated Inter 2-1 in 2009.
