Napoli ended a 22-year wait for silverware by beating Juventus 2-0 in the Coppa Italia final on Sunday, a defeat which ruuned Juventus’s shot at an unbeaten season and domestic double.
An Edinson Cavani penalty put Napoli ahead after 63 minutes, with Marek Hamsik ensuring victory seven minutes from time at the Stadio Olimpico.
Juventus started Del Piero is his 705th and final game for Juventus, but their was no fairy tale ending for the Juventus legend and Napoli were worthy winners.
Napoli, who had not one a major trophy since the Diego Maradona glory days started positively as Juan Camilo Zuniga forced a save from Marco Storari in the first minute and Cavani shot wide moments later from Zuniga’s corner.
Juve were struggling to get a foothold in the match and allowed Lavezzi showed have scored in the 10th minute, but he pulled his diagonal shot just wide of the goal.
But Napoli did not get the goal they deserved and Juve slowly played themselves into the game as Pirlo started to assert himself in the middle of the park and they almost scored in the 17th minute but Morgan De Sanctis made a good save to deny Claudio Marchisio.
With both sides using a 3-5-2 formation, the midfield area was really crowded, and neither side was able to dictate the pace of the game, so it was no surprise when the first half ended scoreless.
On 61 minutes the game took a turn in Napoli’s direction. Bonucci switched off for a moment at a Napoli throw-in allowing Lavezzi to make a run into the box where Storari dived in and brought him down for a clear penalty which Cavani dispatched with ease.
Down a goal, Conte showed his toughness replacing Del Piero with Vucinic as Juve went in charge of an equalizer.
Juve pressed and pressed for an equalizer and Bonucci and Pepe both went close but couldn’t score. The problem with pressing is that you leave yourself open to the counter attack and that is what happened in the 83rd minute when Pandev played in Hamsik to make it 2-0 and game over.
All that was left was for Quagliarella to see red for an elbow on Salvatore Aronica, leaving Napoli celebrating and 37-year-old Del Piero bowing out on a low note
