Cagliari needed a dramatic extra time strike to push past Palermo 2-1 in the Coppa Italia after seeing a penalty saved, while Hellas Verona defeated Ascoli 3-1.
Claudio Ranieri’s men were made to work very hard in their opening game of the season, as goalkeeper Boris Radunovic made some crucial saves on Matteo Brunori, Leo Stulac and Claudio Gomes.
The Sardinians had the chance to take the lead on 23 minutes when Ales Mateju handled in the box, but Leonardo Pavoletti saw his penalty saved by Mirko Pigliacelli.
Ibrahim Sulemana forced a tricky save and Leonardo Mancuso missed a sitter, so the tie went to extra time.
After Nicolas Viola’s attempt was well parried, Cagliari scored from the resulting corner with Alberto Dossena’s glancing header at the near post.
At the 121st minute of the match, Mancuso’s corner found an Edoardo Soleri header from six yards to draw Palermo level.
The drama was not over, because moments later and with Palermo preparing for penalties, Zito Luvumbo’s deflected cross was turned in by Alessandro Di Pardo from a tight angle, surprising Pigliacelli in the near top corner.
Cagliari scrape through in the last moments of extra time and will play Udinese in the second round.
Verona got the better of Ascoli in a 3-1 home win at the Stadio Bentegodi this evening.
Jordi Mboula opened the scoring within 120 seconds and Francesco Forte converted a penalty following Lorenzo Montipo’s foul on Pedro Mendes, but Pawel Dawidowicz from close range and a Milan Djuric spot-kick for handball completed the rout.
Hellas will face Bologna in the next round.