Juventus meet Napoli on Monday in Qatar with the chance of securing some mid-season silverware and give their fans some Christmas cheer over the festive period.
The traditional season curtain raiser, the Supercoppa Italiana, takes place in December due to the Bianconeri’s pre-season obligations in Asia and it is they who this timing perhaps favours more.
For it is the league champions who come into the game looking by far the slicker machine and are firm favourites to take the same title they won when these sides met two years ago – winning an ill tempered occasion in Beijing after extra time.
They met on one previous occasion in this competition, in September 1990 when the Partenopei triumphed 5-1 with Andrea Silenzi and Careca both hitting doubles
Juve have looked unstoppable at times in recent weeks and their most recent league fixture to set them up for their trip to Qatar saw them easily dispatch Zdenek Zeman’s Cagliari with a clinical performance.
The Partenopei come in off the back of a routine win against Parma, although it is their form against sides a little higher up the table which has been cause for concern lately.
Before that win, their last three points came at the start of November with that run including some extremely disappointing draws at home against Cagliari and Empoli while also being beaten on the road by a fairly lacklustre AC Milan.
That has them a full 12 points behind their Supercoppa opponents and although they have had a few little blips themselves over the past month, they rarely look like losing games and are functioning on every bit as effective a level as they did under Antonio Conte.
But even then, it is times like these when that old cliche comes out about cup finals. They truly are one off games indeed when previous form does matter little.
Although it is tough to see Napoli overcoming their opponents, the men on the benches could not be more different when it comes to dealing with these big game matches that have silverware waiting at the end.
Benitez has 11 times led teams out in cup finals and emerged victorious, including a win with Inter in this very competition, while on the other bench his opposite number Massimiliano Allegri has just one Supercoppa Italiana to show for his efforts in these kind of big cup finals.
So will that play a part? Will the wily Benitez add another piece of knockout competition silverware to his CV or will it be the Juventus boss who delivers a first trophy to the Turin club’s trophy cabinet with himself at the helm?
Only the unwrapping of the Supercoppa wrapping paper on Monday will provide the answer.
Ahead of the match, Dries Mertens and Jose Callejon trained separately from their teammates for the Azzurri while Allegri is expected to name essentially a full-strength side with Leonardo Bonucci returning to the heart of the defence.
