On Wednesday, Napoli was crowned the Italian Cup
champion by beating Juventus on a penalty shootout
4-2, after tying 0-0 in the original time of the final at
the Olympic Stadium in Rome behind closed doors.
The two teams resorted to extraordinary penalty
shootouts instead of taking two additional runs, in order
to reduce the physical burden on players who have just
returned to stadiums after stopping since last March
due to the outbreak of the new Corona virus, and to
resume the local league starting this weekend.
The title is the first for the Napoli team since winning
the title in the competition in 2014, while Juventus
failed to boost its record and raise the cup for
the fourteenth time.
Paulo Dybala and Danilo missed two attempts by
Juventus on penalties, while Napoli successfully carried
out his four attempts to give his coach Gennaro Gattuso
his first major title in his coaching career.
Napoli almost snatched the victory in a stoppage time
, but veteran goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon, 42, denied
him a double goal.
