Supercoppa Italiana Against Juventus To Be Played In Winter

Here's an unforeseen consequence of Napoli finishing in third place and winning the Coppa Italia: instead of leading off the Italian season, the Suppercoppa Italia will be moved to just before Christmas this year.

Italy's traditional opening statement of the season to come, played between last season's league and Coppa champions, is set to be played in Beijing this year, and would have been smack in the middle of the UEFA Champions League playoffs that Napoli will be taking part in in August. Naturally travelling across the world in the middle of that would have hurt Napoli's chances of making the group stage, so the club requested that the FIGC move the Supercoppa, and their request was granted after Juventus agreed to the proposal.

Now the match will be on December 23rd, early in Italy's annual winter break. It should serve for a nice distraction in the middle of a period that typically doesn't see much of anything interesting going on, other than even more transfer rumors than usual for lack of anything better to write about. The break is slated to start on December 21st this season, running until January 6th.

Napoli and Juve last met in the Supercoppa in 2012, with Juventus coming out 4-2 winners thanks to a late equalizer in normal time and a pair of extra time goals. Napoli will certainly be hoping to be able to overturn that result this year, looking to build on the 2-0 win over the league champions this past spring.