Carlos Tevez marked his Juventus debut with a goal as the Serie A champions thrashed SS Lazio 4-0 in the Italian Supercoppa on Sunday.
Tevez, who ended his controversial stay at Manchester City in the close-season, scored the fourth and final goal of the game in the 56th minute.
The Argentina international side-footed in a close-range rebound after Swiss star Stephan Lichtsteiner and French youngster Paul Pogba had both been denied in quick succession by Lazio goalkeeper Federico Marchetti.
Photo: EPA
Tevez came close to a second goal in the dying minutes, but his spectacular volley went over the bar.
His link-up play with Montenegro international striker Mirko Vucinic would also have given Juventus coach Antonio Conte great cause for optimism ahead of the new Serie A season which starts next weekend.
“I knew we’d face this match in the right way. It is one game,” Conte said. “We continue to write history, these players put in a great performance and it was a deserved victory. Don’t forget we only lost one match in 90 minutes, against LA [Los Angeles] Galaxy [in a pre-season friendly in the US]. We know that we still have to shake off the heavy pre-season training work, but we deserved the win and I’m very happy.”
Lazio coach Vladimir Petkovic apologized to his team’s fans and said his Coppa Italia winners had been naive by conceding three second-half goals in the space of six minutes.
“It was a blackout. We have to get our feet back on the ground. We tried to do that after winning the Coppa Italia final and we must do it again now. We were perhaps a little too confident against a great Juve side when we weren’t 100 percent fit,” Petkovic said.
Pogba put Juve ahead in the 23rd minute, just three minutes after coming on to replace the injured Claudio Marchisio, who had hurt his knee.
Andrea Pirlo’s free-kick landed comfortably for Lichtsteiner, whose cross landed in the path of Pogba in the penalty area to score.
Defenders Giorgio Chiellini, in the 52nd minute, and the impressive Lichtsteiner, two minutes later, added to the Juve total, before Tevez’s strike.
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