Genoa have progressed to the Coppa Italia Round of 16 after narrowly beating Serie B outfit Reggiana in extra time on Wednesday afternoon and will now face Maurizio Sarri’s Lazio in the next stage of the competition.
It was another meeting of two 2006 World Cup winners on the bench in Genoa this evening, as Alberto Gilardino led his side out to face Alessandro Nesta’s team of hopefuls.
And, it was the lower-league visitors who made the better impression in the first half, eventually snatching the lead in the 37th minute through Muhamed Varela Djamanca.
Though Gilardino had fielded a relatively rotated Genoa side, several first-team reinforcements were called upon at various stages of the second half, including Abert Gudmundsson, Ruslan Malinovskyi and Morten Frendrup.
Ridgeciano Haps found the equaliser for Genoa seven minutes on from the restart of play after the interval, although his team would have to go the full two hours before the victory was secured.
Gudmundsson, Genoa’s top goalscorer so far in 2023-24, eventually came up with the winning strike after 99 minutes.
Genoa will now face Lazio in the Round of 16, which is currently scheduled to take place on December 5 at 20.00 UK time, subject to change.