Another Serie A team is eliminated from the Coppa Italia: Verona defeats Cagliari

Another Serie A team bids farewell to the Coppa Italia, even as the tournament is still in the round of 32 and the calendar tells us it’s the middle of summer. Cagliari is the latest to be eliminated, losing 2-1 to Verona at the Unipol Domus. Verona, who will face Roma in the round of 16, managed to take the lead in the first half but conceded the equalizer before the hour mark. They then pulled off the feat of regaining and securing the lead just a few minutes before the 90-minute mark: Samuele Mulattieri, who had been on the field since the start of the second half, proved decisive.

Verona, moreover, deservedly advanced to the next round: this was evident from the very first chance of the match, set up by Edmundsson off a corner kick, with Radunovic alert enough to deny him. Cagliari briefly held out hope with a move by Mendy, but then the visitors once again posed a threat through Harroui and Kastanos. The opening goal finally came in the 23rd minute, when Harroui himself capitalized on a counterattack started by Kastanos and Livramento—as well as a series of defensive blunders by the Sardinian backline—to open the scoring.

The reaction was fierce: before halftime, Ciervo, Felici, Rodriguez, and Fazzini all had chances, then the referee denied a penalty for a deflection by Korac in the box that did not involve his arm. But the score remained unchanged at halftime. It changed in the 57th minute, when Mendy scored with a formidable header off a cross from Fadera. Cagliari seemed to be in full control of the game, but Perilli stopped Fadera’s free kick, and Ciervo shot over the bar after a great pass from Adopo. One might have expected a penalty shootout, but in the 87th minute, a goal came: Verona scored it, thanks to Mulattieri, who perfectly stole the ball from Rodriguez to beat Radunovic. The Rossoblù goalkeeper himself, along with Maldini and Deiola, tried to find the equalizer in the frantic final moments of the match, which ultimately ended in a loss for the home team. And yet another elimination for Serie A.

This isn’t the first time Mulattieri has proven decisive in this Coppa Italia: the forward had already scored from the spot in the previous round, when Verona defeated Virtus Entella in a penalty shootout after a 2-2 draw in regulation. In that match as well, he was one of the penalty takers who scored, alongside Kastanos and Edmundsson. This consistent performance translated tonight into the most crucial goal of the evening—the one that dashed Cagliari’s hopes of a comeback.

For Verona—who were relegated to Serie B at the end of last season—this result marks an attempt to get back on track after a less-than-impressive start to the season: first, a 2-1 home loss to Ascoli in their season opener—with Mulattieri scoring the opening goal, which was then nullified by the Marche side’s comeback—followed by a 1-1 draw in Padua after falling behind, had fueled more than a few doubts about Baroni’s team. Beating a Serie A team—albeit one with some rotations—is therefore an important boost for the team’s morale.

For Cagliari, on the other hand, the loss stings all the more given the circumstances. The Rossoblù had started the season with three consecutive 1-0 wins—a victory over Arezzo in the Coppa Italia round of 32 thanks to a penalty by Deiola, and a win at Parma in the league opener with a goal by Romano—before losing to Inter at home. Their elimination from the Coppa Italia thus adds a sour note to a start that had seemed promising. Worth noting is the performance of Ciervo, who arrived on loan from Sassuolo this summer specifically to fill the void left by Gabriele Zappa—who, curiously enough, was transferred to Hellas Verona: the winger, born in 2002, played with energy, but it wasn’t enough to prevent elimination.

With this result, the round of 32 matches played this week are now complete. Verona joins the other qualifiers in the round of 16: Cremonese, Monza, Sassuolo, Udinese, and Palermo—the latter having secured a 5-2 victory over Mantova in the afternoon match. Still to be played on September 15 are Genoa vs. Südtirol and Fiorentina vs. Pisa, with a spot against Inter and Napoli, respectively, at stake. The round of 16 is scheduled for December, between the 2nd and the 16th.