Napoli was knocked out of the Coppa Italia at home by Cremonese

Cremonese qualified for the quarter-finals of the Italian football cup this Tuesday, knocking Napoli 5-4 on penalties after a two-goal draw at the end of extra time.

The Serie A red lantern, still winless, opened the scoring in the 18th minute, through Swiss midfielder Charles Pickel, who passed Famalicão, but Napoli reversed the result in the space of three minutes, on 33 and 36, ahead of Brazilian center Juan Jesus, and Argentine striker Giovanni Simeone.

This turn of events made us think that Napoli, who only led the league and beat Juventus 5-1 at home on the final day, would support the Neapolitan coach by saving the starting line-up for the game with the vecchia signoraexcept goalkeeper Alex Meret.

If it’s a fact that Napoli created some scoring chances that they squandered in the closing stages of the second half and in extra time, Cremonese also never ‘thrown in the towel’ and beat themselves to the hilt.

That belief was finally rewarded in the 87th minute, at a time when Napoli were looking to make it 2-1, with Ghanaian striker Felix Afena-Gyan, on loan from Roma, from Jose Mourinho, making it 2-2, beating Meret. with an unstoppable header after a cross from the right by Luca Zanimacchia.

Luciano Spalletti launched some of the usual starters in the second half, starting with the midfield starting trio in the thrashing of ‘vecchia signora’, Politano, Anguissa and Lobotka, in the 65th minute.

In the 82nd minute, South Korean center Kim Min-Jae and Polish midfielder Piotr Zielenski were introduced, but these substitutions didn’t stop Cremonese to make it 2–2 and force extra time, a period in which Spalletti decided resorting to his ‘man-goal’ Osimhen, whom he intended to rest, to avoid penalties.

Cremonese played the last 20 minutes of extra time with one player less, due to the exclusion of Leonardo Sernicola, who saw two yellow cards, the first at 90+7 regular time and the second at the 100th minute of extra time.

In the final series of penalties, Cremonese was more competent and completed the five penalties, while Napoli’s Slovak midfielder Stanislav Lobotka failed to hit the target on the fourth penalty, kicked out and, surprisingly, left his team out of the Italian. Cup.

Cremonese will thus face José Mourinho’s Roma in the quarter-finals, in one leg, in Cremona, on February 1.