The Coppa Italia proved more difficult than expected for Andrea Pirlo’s Sampdoria, who needed penalties to defeat Sudtirol, while Cremonese beat Crotone in extra time.
The opening round of the competition has seen a few surprises already, such as Empoli going out to Cittadella and Monza’s elimination at the hands of Reggiana.
Pirlo made his official debut as coach of Sampdoria and it started well enough with Mehdi Leris turning in a Valerio Verre cross to open the scoring after 17 minutes.
Daniele Casiraghi snatched the equaliser in first half stoppages for Sudtirol and it remained 1-1 throughout extra time.
Even the penalty shoot-out dragged on to sudden death, because Fabio Depaoli completely missed the target, followed by Jeremie Broh thumping the upright.
Andrea Masiello eventually made the decisive error and Nicola Murru converted to send Samp through, where they will face Salernitana.
Cremonese were forced to extra time as well after a 1-1 draw with Crotone.
It was the visitors who had taken the lead through a Marco Tumminello strike, cancelled out by Felix Afena-Gyan’s header on a Leonardo Sernicola cross.
Cristian Buonaiuto thought he had won it for Cremonese in stoppages, only for VAR to disallow.
Cremonese did take control in extra time, making sure with Franco Vazquez and Charles Pickel, so they will play against Cittadella in the next round.