Italian Super Cup Preview, Predictions & Betting Tips

The Italian Super Cup or Supercoppa Italiana is an annual football competition in Italy. Usually held the week before the Serie A season begins in Italy, it is contested between the Serie A champions and the winners of the Coppa Italia.

The competition is relatively new, having started in 1988 when AC Milan defeated Sampdoria 3-1 at the Stadio Giuseppe Meazza in Milan with goals scored by Frank Rijkaard, Marco van Basten and Graziano Mannari. 18 of the first 21 Supercoppa Italiana contests were played at the home of the Serie A champions. 

In 1993 the Italian Super Cup was played at Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium in Washington D.C., USA with AC Milan defeating Torino 1-0. The Stadio Olimpico in Rome has twice acted as a neutral venue for the match. 

In 2002 the Italian Super Cup was held at the 11 June Stadium in Tripoli, Libya with Juventus defeating Parma 2-1 courtesy of an Alessandro Del Piero brace. The 2003 Italian Super Cup was played at Giants Stadium in New Jersey, USA with Juventus defeating Milan in a penalty shootout after the match ended 1-1. 

Since 2009 the venues have mostly been outside Italy, with four matches played in China at the Beijing National Stadium (2009, 2011 & 2012) and the Shanghai Stadium in 2015. The Supercoppa Italiana has also been exported to the Middle East with two matches played at the Jassim Bin Hamad Stadium in Doha, Qatar (2014 & 2016). 

Juventus and Milan both hold the record for winning the Italian Super Cup the most times, with seven victories each since the competition began in 1988. Internazionale are next best with five titles, Lazio have won on four occasions with Roma and Napoli both winning twice.

The Serie A champions has won the Italian Super Cup 21 times, the Coppa Italia Champion seven times with the Coppa Italia Runners-up winning twice from seven opportunities.

Five players are tied as the all-time top goalscorers in Italian Super Cup history with three goals each - Alessandro Del Piero (Juventus), Paulo Dybala (Juventus), Samuel Eto'o (Internazionale), Andriy Shevchenko (AC Milan) and Carlos Tevez (Juventus).

If the same team wins the Serie A and Coppa Italia titles, the Italian Super Cup is contested by the Serie A winner and the Coppa Italia runner-up. This has happened seven times with the eight to occur in the 2018 edition.

The 2018 Italian Super Cup will be played on 16 January 2019 at King Abdullah Sports City Stadium in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. As Juventus won both the 2017-18 Serie A title and the 2017-18 Coppa Italia, they will take on 2017-18 Coppa Italia runners-up, AC Milan.