The 2010s are going to be remembered, in Italian football, as a decade dominated by Juventus: winners of eight out of 10 Scudetti, four Coppe Italia and 4 Supercoppe also. Yet they began with a special team – Inter – winning the treble. They end amidst suggestions that the Old Lady’s crown might once more be beginning to slip.

Perhaps such talk is premature. Juventus will end 2019 sitting joint-top of Serie A. Alongside them, however, are an Inter team coached by Antonio Conte, the person who led their own charge back to the summit eight seasons ago. The Nerazzurri have scored more goals while conceding fewer, and rounded out the year with a 4-0 demolition of Genoa.Juventus finished the year on a really different note. They also won their final league game, Cristiano Ronaldo sealing victory over Sampdoria with a gravity-defying header on Wednesday, but still had another commitment to fulfil. This year’s Supercoppa – officially rebranded because the Coca-Cola Supercup – would be played in Saudi Arabia on Sunday.Their opponents were Lazio. Or, to place it differently, a team that beat them 3-1 within the league just fortnight ago. Juventus had evolved since: Maurizio Sarri experimenting for the primary time with a front three of Ronaldo, Gonzalo Higuaín and Paulo Dybala.

He dared to start out all of them together in Riyadh. the result was precisely the same because it had been in Rome. If anything, Juventus looked worse. that they had a minimum of started brightly against Lazio in their league fixture, grabbing an early lead only to falter after Rodrigo Bentancur exited with a knee injury and Juan Cuadrado was shown a red card.

There were no such mitigating factors this point around. Lazio scored first on Sunday, Luis Alberto side-footing home from 10 yards out. Despite yielding possession to Juventus, and an equaliser to Paulo Dybala on the stroke of half-time, they continued to seem far and away the more dangerous side.Sarri’s gamble up front yielded mixed results. Dybala and Ronaldo sparkled intermittently, which was quite might be said for the remainder of the team. The Portuguese forward came closest to giving Juventus an undeserved lead when he flashed an attempt over the bar from the sting of the box.

To accommodate bold selections at the highest of his formation, however, Sarri felt compelled to form more cautious choices elsewhere. Mattia De Sciglio started in situ of Juan Cuadrado at right-back, presumably because he might be trusted to not stray too far upfield.Tactical discipline alone, however, doesn’t a defender make.

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