Di Vaio: ‘Bologna tense and eager to enjoy’ first ever Supercoppa

Bologna director Marco Di Vaio admits they are feeling ‘tense, but want to enjoy the experience’ of their first ever Supercoppa Italiana test against Inter.

It kicks off at the Al-Awwal Park Stadium in Riyadh at 19.00 GMT.

You can follow all the build-up and action as it happens on the Liveblog.

A winner must be decided after 90 minutes or penalties, so without extra time, and goes on to face Napoli in Monday’s Final.

The Rossoblu qualified for the Supercoppa for the first time in their history, as the event hadn’t been invented when they last won the Coppa Italia or Scudetto.

They lifted the Coppa Italia trophy after beating AC Milan in the Final last season, ending a more than 50-year wait for silverware.

“There is tension, the desire to put in a great performance, many expectations around all of us to face this game in the best possible way,” Di Vaio told Sport Mediaset.

“Inter are accustomed to being in the Supercoppa, but it is the first time for us here, so we are eager to do well. We are here, we want to enjoy the experience and are very pleased that we earned our right to participate in this competition, so now we want to honour it.”

Bologna are missing injured Lukasz Skorupski, Remo Freuler and Nicolò Casale, while Martin Vitik is back on the bench after his lay-off.

There had been reports it was between Federico Bernardeschi and Riccardo Orsolini to start, but instead they both play, with Nicolò Cambiaghi dropping to the bench.

Santiago Castro leads the attack and has already attracted a lot of attention from various clubs.

“Santi has great hunger, he wants to learn every day in training from every since exercise. He is training with a great striker who wrote the history of Italian football like Ciro Immobile. I also try to give advice, but a lot has changed since when I was a forward,” added Di Vaio.

“He came to Europe at a very young age, he knows that the daily work is essential, and that attitude will take him far.”