SAN FRANCISCO, January 17, (THEWILL) – Cristiano Ronaldo scored the only goal to hand Juventus their first trophy of the season with a 1-0 win over ten-man AC Milan in the Italian Super Cup on Wednesday played at the King Abdullah Sports City stadium in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
Ronaldo, signed by the Italian giants last year from Real Madrid, led a dominant Juventus bulleting in a header just after the hour mark to seal the win in the annual one-off meeting.
The Portuguese superstar has now scored 19 times in 30 final appearances for both club and country and the win over Milan in Saudi Arabia means he’s won a super cup in four different leagues – Portugal, England, Spain and now Italy.
AC Milan played the last quarter of an hour a man down after Ivorian midfielder Franck Kessie saw red for a bad tackle on Emre Can.
“I have my first title with Juventus so I’m happy,” said the Portuguese star who now has 28 trophies including five Champions League and league titles from England and Spain, and a European Championship with Portugal.
“I really wanted this, to get off to a good start in 2019.
“This is only the start, we’ll take it one step at a time. We’ve got this cup, now we must keep working hard to achieve the next trophy.”
The match had been overshadowed by controversy with calls for it to be relocated over human rights issues in Saudi Arabia with women only allowed to attend the game if they were accompanied by a man.
Italian football league president Gaetano Micciche hailed the match as a success, with reports there were up to 15,000 women among the 62,000 crowd in the stadium.
“It was a wonderful evening, a festival of sport in a full stadium,” said Micciche.
“I hope that it’s the starting point for social evolution in this country.”
In the end Juventus came away with a record eighth Super Cup title, one more than AC Milan who have won seven.
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