Ronaldo Wins First Trophy With Juventus

By Joshua Walters
Cristiano Ronaldo stole the show as Juventus won a record eighth Italian Super Cup with a 1-0 victory over AC Milan in Saudi Arabia.
The game in Jeddah was the 10th time the Italian Super Cup was being staged outside the European country.

Juventus qualified as Serie A champions as AC Milan made the cut as runners-up of the Coppa Italia having lost the finals to the Biaconeri last season.

Milan striker Gonzalo Higuain was dropped to the bench amid speculations he is close to joining Chelsea though some pre-match reports suggested that the Argentine had a fever.

It was the Juventus kingpin Ronaldo who stole the show by scoring the only goal of the game to hand the Turin club its eighth Supercoppa title to make them the competition’s most successful team with one more trophy than Milan.

"It was a very difficult match, it’s very warm and hard to play in these conditions,” Ronaldo told Italian broadcasters. 

"It was my intention to start 2019 with a trophy, I have my first title with Juve and I am very happy,” he added.

"It is only the start, we take it one step at a time. We’ve got this cup, now we must keep working hard to achieve the next trophy. 

"Serie A is always Juve’s principal objective, we are top of the table, but it’s a very long competition and it’s going to be tough, so we need to keep working.”

Ronaldo hit the crossbar with an acrobatic kick in a balanced first half before Hakan Calhanoglu forced a good save from Juventus goalkeeper, Wojciech Szczesny, with a close-range shot.

Patrick Cutrone went inches close to putting Milan in front three minutes after the break with a powerful shot that hit the crossbar and bounced back to safety.

Ronaldo broke the deadlock just after the hour mark when he latched onto Miralem Pjanic’s through pass to head past a helpless Gianluigi Donnarumma.

Milan coach Gennaro Gattuso introduced Higuain for the final 20 minutes as he looked for a route back into the game, but his side’s challenge dashed after Franck Kessie was sent off for a stamp on Emre Can following a VAR review.

Milan had a penalty appeal denied after Can challenged Andrea Conti inside the box.