Napoli President Aurelio De Laurentiis believes Italian soccer came out the real winner following Monday night’s Supercoppa, which last season’s Coppa Italia winner won onpenalties after a 2-2 draw with Juventus, last season’s league winner, after overtime. “Tonight Italian soccer won,” De Laurentiis told Rai Sport. “Napoli-Juventus is a fixturewhich even since Serie B has provided great games. We got lucky on the penalties, let’s say this was a rehearsal for what we’ll see in the League.”
He added: “Thismatch will spur us on in the next two weeks [during the winter break], now we have the League and we’ll try to improve the team in the transfer market. For the rest of the season I expect thelads to honor the shirt the way they did today. We’ll strengthen the team and try to finish the season well.”
Napoli entered the winter break in fourth-place, level on points withthird-place Lazio, which has a superior goal difference. The race for Italy’s third and final UEFA Champions League slot should be interesting, as just two points separate Lazio in third from ACMilan in seventh.