Different moods for Juventus and Napoli as they meet for Super Cup clash

DPA – The Super Cup match pitting Juventus against Napoli on Wednesday in Reggio Emilia comes at a bad moment for the Turin Serie A champions, who are struggling in the league after years of dominance.

Their new coach Andrea Pirlo minced no words after a 2-0 loss to Inter Milan that late Sunday dropped his side seven points behind the Nerazzurri, who are second in the table but level on points with leaders AC Milan.

“Our attitude was all wrong from the very beginning,” Pirlo said, “and when you lack anger and determination in matches like these, it’s an uphill struggle. “We couldn’t have put in a worse performance than this but now we need to pick ourselves up because we’ve got a cup final on Wednesday,” he added Juve, who won the past nine Scudetti, sit fifth with a game in hand, but their gap from the top could widen to 10 points in case Milan beat Cagliari late Monday to extend their league lead. The rescheduled game still awaits a date and will be played against the Neapolitans, who crushed Fiorentina 6-0 to go one point clear of the Bianconeri one game before the half-season mark.

Criticism of the Juventini, including dimmed star Cristiano Ronaldo, was excoriating, only sparing Weston McKennie and Dejan Kulusevski. The two dynamic midfielders, however, only came on during the second half, which seemed to be one of the reasons for Pirlo’s lowest mark from La Gazzetta dello Sport. The daily newspaper focused its front page on Inter’s success, but saved a spot for Napoli skipper Lorenzo Insigne and his brace against the Florentines. Napoli now hope to take the momentum into the Super Cup clash, which repeats the Italian Cup final they won on penalties last June. “It was a no-nonsense performance from us,” said Napoli boss Gennaro Gattuso, who will meet his former Milan team-mate Pirlo. “We showed a good mentality and worked hard. I’m pleased with the way the team played the game. I saw mentality, strength and sacrifice.”

Gattuso looks to have forward Dries Mertens back in form, but misses Victor Osimhen and Fabian Ruiz to coronavirus infection. Contagion has also impacted Juve, sidelining Alex Sandro, Juan Cuadrado and Matthijs de Ligt. Midweek action begins Tuesday with Roma meeting Spezia and Lazio tackling Parma on Thursday to complete the round of 16 of the Italian Cup. Milan and Inter qualified last week to set up a city derby in the quarter-finals, where Juventus will be against second-division SPAL. Atalanta and Napoli also qualified and await their opponents.

A reprogrammed league game is set for Wednesday between Udinese and Atalanta, who had their match rained off in early December.