Genoa and Siena won through to the Coppa Italia Round of 16, but only after late scares in their respective matches.
Genoa and Siena won through to the Coppa Italia Round of 16, but only after late scares in their respective matches.
A stoppage-time penalty from Bari’s Nicola Bellomo had dramatically pulled Genoa into extra time in their Thursday evening Coppa Italia fourth round tie. Lucas Pratto’s late effort eventually won it for the home side five minutes from time, sending the Serie A side through and preventing a penalty shoot-out.
A last-minute strike from Cristobal Jorquera had initially looked like being enough to give the Grifone a tight 2-1 win over Bari. However, in a similar fashion to the first half, where a Valter Birsa (pictured) penalty was immediately cancelled out by Martino Borghese’s effort at the other end, the Galletti again equalised within 60 seconds to take the match beyond the original 90 minutes.
Meanwhile, Giuseppe Sannino’s ploy to get the best out of his team by bringing every fit squad member down to Sardinia for their fourth round clash with Cagliari” data-scaytid=”32″>Cagliari paid off. Goals from Pablo Gonzalez in the first half and Angelo in the second ultimately ensured the Robur’s place in the Last 16 in a competition Sannino has promised to take seriously.
Rui Sampaio’s stunning strike from outside the box resulted in a nervous final five minutes for the visitors whilst goalkeeper Vlada Avramov’s decision to go up for a last-minute free-kick almost sent the tie into extra time as his header forced a good save from his counterpart Gianluca Pegolo.
Midway through the second period, Cagliari’s Daniele Conti and Siena Coach Sannino were both sent off from the bench for taking their protests on a refereeing decision too far. Cagliari, who had three penalty appeals turned down, also finished the game with 10 men after Davide Bionidini withdrew through injury after the Sardinians had already used their three substitutions.
Genoa can now look forward to a clash with Cup holders Inter in the next round of the competition whilst Siena can prepare for a game against last year’s runners-up Palermo.
Genoa 3-2 Bari
Scorers: Birsa pen 37 (G), Borghese 38 (B), Jorquera 90 (G), Bellomo pen 91 (B), Pratto 115 (G)
Genoa: Lupatelli; Mesto, Kaladze, Dainelli, Antonelli (Moretti 41); Kucka, Seymour (Veloso 59), Birsa (Palacio 73); Jorquera; Pratto, Jankovic
Bari: Koprivec; Crescenzi, Borghese, Ceppitelli, Garofalo; Bellomo, Donati, Rivaldo (De Falco 82); Defendi (Galano 64), Rivas (Stoian 72), Caputo
Ref: Gervasoni
Cagliari 1-2 Siena
Scorers: Gonzalez 16 (S), Angelo 52 (S), Rui Sampaio 84 (C)
Cagliari: Avramov; Pisano, Gozzi, Ariaudo, Agostini (Canini 57); Nainggolan (Ceppelini 59), Conti (Biondini 57), Rui Sampaio; Ekdal, Ibarbo; Thiago Ribeiro
Siena: Pegolo; Belmonte (Angella 67), Contini, Pesoli, Rossi; Troianello (Sestu 52), Parravicini (Codrea 58), Bolzoni, Angelo; Reginaldo, Gonzalez
Ref: Calvarese