For the fifth time in the past six seasons, the team with Goran Pandev on its roster has won the Italian Cup trophy.

Goran Pandev claimed his 5th Italian Cup trophy after Napoli celebrated a 3:1 victory over Fiorentina in the final.  The match was played at the Stadio Olimpico in Rome, a place very familiar to Pandev since that was his home venue during all of his years with Lazio earlier in his career.  Goran has won the Italian Cup with three different teams (Lazio, Inter and Napoli).  His first one came back in the 2008-09 season with Lazio, then he won the same trophy the next two seasons with Inter, and added two more Italian Cup titles during his now three years with Napoli.  The only Italian Cup winners over the past six seasons that didn’t have Pandev on their team was Lazio who won the trophy during the 2012-13 season.

In Saturday’s game, Pandev opened on the bench for Napoli before he was introduced in the 70th minute to replace Gonzalo Higuain.  Goran then quickly had a big chance to score a goal in the 74th minute, but his effort was well saved by the Fiorentina keeper.  Napoli led 2:1 at that time and put the game away in the 90th minute when Belgian international Dries Mertes completed the 3:1 scoreline.

The game was delayed for about 40 minutes after incidents outside the stadium left several Napoli fans injured.  After that occurred, the match was in doubt with postponement a serious possibility, but eventually it was agreed for the game to kick-off and Napoli came out on the winning side.

Napoli celebrates winning the Italian Cup:

https://youtube.com/watch?v=4iSZuOcSanI