Napoli beats Cagliari only on penalties: they’re in the Coppa Italia quarterfinals

After the victories of Juventus and Atalanta against Udinese and Genoa respectively, Napoli also respected the odds in the round of 16 of the Coppa Italia. But Antonio Conte’s men struggled much more than expected to get the better of a never tame Cagliari. At the Maradona, in fact, it ended 1-1 after regulation time: Lucca opened the scoring for the Azzurri, the newly entered Esposito equalized in the second half. So it goes to penalty kicks where after an’interminable sequence is Buongiorno to give the partenopei the qualification to the quarterfinals where they will challenge one between Fiorentina and Como.

Luca Giorgetti

Napoli found the lead on the first shot on goal: after an Elmas free kick deflected by Luperto into a corner, Vergara crossed to the second post where there’s Lucca who with his head smashed the ball into the net, beating Caprile. Five minutes later it is the same blue striker who came close to doubling the score with a shot that ends on the outside of the net but at the time of the conclusion he was offside. In the final, the guests try to make themselves dangerous with a shot by Di Pardo from the edge of the area but his attempt ends well outside the mirror. It goes to the’halftime with the hosts ahead by a margin.

.

At the beginning of the second half, Politano tried on Lucca’s bank but the blue outfielder’s shot ended high over the crossbar. At 55′ Pisacane sends in Prati, Borrelli and Sebastiano Esposito and the choice turns out to be apt. First Prati, with a shot deflected by Vergara, and then Esposito, with a high right, scare Milinkovic-Savic. At 67′ it was the same Esposito who signed the Red and Blue equaliser by finalizing a counter-attack led by Borrelli. Conte played it all by inserting Neres and Langa but it was Cagliari that even came close to overtaking with a Deiola header at the 83’83’. In the final, Caprile overcame first on McTominay and then on Neres. It thus went to penalty kicks.

In the penalty lottery, the first to miss is Felici: his shot is printed on the crossbar. Napoli has match point with Neres but the Brazilian outfielder gets hypnotized by Caprile. It continued to the bitter end until the tenth penalty shot: Luvumbo had his shot parried by Milinkovic-Savic, while Buongiorno did not tremble and scored, giving them access to the quarterfinals. The Azzurri thus break a taboo: in fact, it was since 2020 that they did not enter the best eight of the Italian Cup. Napoli, however, will have to wait well over a month to know its opponent: the challenge between Fiorentina and Como is scheduled for Wednesday, January 27 at 9 p.m. at the Franchi.