Coppa Italia: Empoli to play Inter Milan after winning 7-goal thriller

 

Empoli will be playing Serie A champions, Inter Milan, after defeating Hellas Verona in the last 32 of the competition.

What made this a sweet win was that they edged Verona at home.

Coincidentally, Hellas came back into their last Serie A meeting against Venezia after from 3-0 down to win 4-3 in Serie A 10 days ago.

Empoli had, during the opening moment, lost Nicolas Haas to a sprained knee in the opening three minutes. Despite that, Andrea La Mantia put them in front after a smart Filippo Bandinelli back-heel flick.

Verona restored parity through Matteo Cancellieri while the crossbar prevented Kevin Lasagna from putting Verona in front.

Meanwhile, Leonardo Mancuso scored from the penalty spot following Antonino Ragusa’s handball, followed swiftly by his rebound on a parried Leo Stulac strike.

Nedim Bajrami failed to make it 4-1 for Empoli after his right-foot volley from the edge of the box.

Verona staged another comeback through 18-year-old Mattia Florio. He had hit the post before Ivan Ilic saw his free-kick deflected.

In another Cup game, Cagliari will be playing Sassuolo after seeing off Cittadella 3-1.

Alessandro Deiola needed just 16 minutes to break the deadlock heading in Gabriele Zappa’s cross.

Damir Ceter scored their second goal half-time after Deiola’s initial shot had been parried into his path.

They scored the third later as Cittadella goalkeeper Luca Maniero produced an unconvincing performance. It was Gaston Pereiro with the follow-up this time around.

Cittadella scored two goals during the closing stages, but they were disallowed. The first from Davide Mazzocco was disallowed for offside.

The minnows reduced the deficit with a stunning long-range screamer from Daniele Donnarumma.

 

Written by: Oladipupo Mojeed