Inter Take Birra Moretti Trophy; Grudge Match Not So Grudgy

By: Martha | August 9th, 2007

Napoli supporters sort of rule. In yesterday’s Birra Moretti tournament, Napoli failed to score, losing to both Juve and Inter and officially panicking supporters to such a degree that their chairman immediately promised to buy three more players (one of them, if his agent is to be believed, from Roma). Ah, the sweet, sweet smell of insane overreaction — that’s right, people: Serie A is back!

In the first match of the day, Juve beat Napoli 1-0 on a goal by Alessandro Del Piero, who hopefully took that goal right to management and demanded they pay him what he’s worth. In the second game Napoli were defeated 2-0, this time by a strong Inter squad which got goals from Dejan Stankovic and the Flying Honduran, David Suazo. In the third and final match, Inter beat Juve 1-0 on a fluky second minute goal from aging Brazilian defender Cesar, who reportedly had a great match. (That’s convenient for him, since he’s rumored to be heading to either Juve or Napoli on loan.)

The Juve-Inter match, much anticipated by those who wanted to see the old adversaries go at it after a whole season apart, sounds like it was a proverbial end-to-end affair, with both teams having copious chances (and failing to finish). Unfortunately, both also fielded largely second-choice and youth line-ups (In case you’re wondering, yes, this meant Adriano played), so the expected edge to the match doesn’t seem to have developed. Still, though — it’s a trophy; for those of you keeping score, that’s Inter 1, Juve 0.

Some Related Serie A Posts:

Category: Inter, Juventus, Napoli, Results, Rumors & News, Serie A

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Lisa

Insane overreaction? No. Merely very high expectations. And as Joe said, the management have helped created those expectations. They've only spent half of what they said they would.
Joe

To be fair to the Napoli tifoseria, their demands for Napoli to be more active in the transfer market are based on the fact that De Laurentis said he would spend 30 million on players during this window. To date, they've spent around 16 if you factor in buying out Domizzi from Sampdoria.
The players Marino has picked up are quality and Napoli now have a real good young nucleus of International players (Garics, Lavezzi, Gargano, Hamsik and Bogliacino) along with other young players with lots of potential including Rullo and Calaio and Paolo Cannavaro. But they need depth...lots of depth. You really don't want to see Grava or Cupi trying to hold off the likes of Simone Perotta or Quagliarella do you?