Juventus crush Lazio in Italian Supercup
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E-mail Xinhua, August 19, 2013
Juventus routed Lazio 4-0 in the Italian Supercup at the Stadio Olimpico on Sunday.
Paul Pogba came off the bench to open the scoring at the 23rd minute and give Antonio Conte's men a deserved 1-0 lead in the first half, then Giorgio Chiellini, Stephan Lichtsteiner and Carlos Tevez used five minutes to score three goals in the second half to shatter any hope of Lazio's comeback.
Juventus head coach Conte was always confident that his side continued writing history with this overwhelming win.
"I knew we'd face this one-off match in the right way. It is one game, there is no tomorrow and you have to do it today. We continue to write history, these players put in a great performance and it was a deserved victory," he said.
His Lazio counterpart Vladimir Petkovic was in a apolometic mood. "It's always tough to lose by more than two goals. We apologize to the fans and the city. We turn over a new leaf and move forward," he said.
"We let go after an avoidable second goal and should've stayed in the shape we prepared before the game, but were naive. It was a psychological collapse and with that black-out we conceded another two goals in quick succession," he added.
Juventus' second goal came courtesy of a devastating counter-attack in the 52nd minute when midfielder Arturo Vidal found Lichtsteiner's roving run down the right and the Swiss completed the simple task of teeing up Chiellini following a lung-bursting sprint upfield.
Lichtsteiner had been a constant source of worry for Lazio throughout the match and, when Juventus grabbed a third just two minutes later, the 29-year-old was a deserving scorer. He played a delightful one-two with Vucinic to deceive the Lazio defence before producing a delightful outside-of-the-boot finish to cement Juve's utter dominance of the fixture.
But they were not done there, as some Marchetti heroics denied Pogba but allowed Tevez to grab his first competitive goal for Juventus since joining from Manchester City from close range amid some chaotic Lazio defending.
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