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Juventus crush Lazio 4-0 to win Italian Supercup
20 Aug, 2013
Juventus won the Italian Supercup for a sixth time on Sunday after humiliating Lazio 4-0 with Carlos Tevez scoring in his first official match with the Italian champions.
The match was marred by racist chanting from the Lazio ultras shortly before fulltime and a warning had to be made over the loudspeaker. There was also trouble in the buildup as two local Juventus fans were stabbed in the backside and had to be taken to hospital.
On the pitch, Juventus substitute Paul Pogba scored in the 23rd minute, less than three minutes after coming on for the injured Claudio Marchisio.
Giorgio Chiellini and Stephan Lichtsteiner extended Juventus' advantage early in the second half before Tevez's 56th-minute strike.
Juventus is level with AC Milan as having won the season's traditional curtain-raiser between the league champion and the Italian Cup winner the most times.
The ease with which Juventus tore Lazio apart in its own stadium will be a warning sign to the rest of Serie A. Antonio Conte's team is already favorite to win the league for a third consecutive time.
"I knew that we would face the match with the right attitude, and I am happy to have brought home for the second consecutive year the double of the title and the Supercup," Conte said. "It was a deserved victory.
"It' all credit to these lads. I knew they would have the right attitude and that's how it was. It will be a difficult year, we have to start fully charged as we did today, playing with our head and with desire."
The hefty defeat will have come as a shock for Lazio and its fans, still celebrating after beating bitter city rival Roma to lift the Italian Cup in May.
"We collapsed after the second goal and we were a bit naive, while Juve was clinical," Lazio coach Vladimir Petkovic said. "But until the second goal, they didn't create much.
"They deserved it, now we have to return with our feet on the ground after winning the final against Roma. We have to examine our conscience, realize our errors and start again from zero."
There was an early blow for Juventus as a visibly frustrated Marchisio limped off with a knee injury in the 20th minute. It took replacement Pogba only 2 minutes, 35 seconds to put Juventus in front following a well-worked free kick.
Specialist Andrea Pirlo was expected to have an attempt on goal but instead rolled it to Lichtsteiner and his cross was deflected by Stefan Radu into the path of Pogba, who swivelled and fired into the bottom left corner.
Radu almost leveled 10 minutes later but Juventus goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon pulled off a fantastic save to fingertip the ball away to safety with his trailing hand.
Juventus doubled its lead seven minutes after the break, with Chiellini tapping in Lichtsteiner's cross after a swift counterattack.
Having made the two goals, Lichtsteiner - who was signed from Lazio in 2011 - found the net himself two minutes later, racing through the Lazio defense before firing into the bottom right corner.
Juventus was running rampant and scored a fourth shortly after as Tevez opened his account following his offseason move from Manchester City.
Lichtsteiner was again involved. His effort was acrobatically parried by goalkeeper Federico Marchetti, who reacted immediately to then save Pogba's header. But the ball rebounded back to the Frenchman, who cut it back for Tevez to drill into the bottom left corner.
Lazio went close to reducing the deficit in the 75th minute. Miroslav Klose easily beat Leonardo Bonucci to race clear on goal but Buffon did well to parry with his legs.
Source: new nation