It takes a sequence of eight penalty kicks to decide who should be Inter’s opponent in the Coppa Italia semi-final. In the end Como prevailed, after the match had ended in a 1-1 draw. In the spot kicks, Lobotka’s mistake was decisive as he had his shot blocked by Butez. Previously, Lukaku for Napoli and Perrone for Como had also missed the penalty. The match is quite balanced. If in the first half of the game it was mainly the Lombards who asserted a discreet dominance, in the second half Conte’s team came out and reacted also because they were forced to recover the disadvantage gained due to a penalty scored by Baturina. In the first half, the Lombards took advantage of the home team’s lack of aggression in midfield and often managed to impose their game with central holes that put the Azzurri’s defense in difficulty. It is a bit the same tactic used by Napoli in which Giovane and Vergara are however more focused on giving a hand to the midfielders than on supporting Hojlund’s offensive action: the attacker is inevitably looked for almost exclusively by deep throws, often coming from the defenders if not even from Milinkovic-Savic. Como’s opening goal came thanks to an action on the left. Valle places a cross in front of the goal on which, anticipating Juan Jesus and Olivera, Smolcic pounces. The Uruguayan touches the Croatian’s leg, and Manganiello points to the spot. Baturina converts with a very angled shot.
Napoli reacts with Hojlund who, taking advantage of a throw from Milinkovic-Savic, appears at the edge of the penalty area where he is brought down by Ramon. Manganiello decides for the defender’s warning which, after a VAR check, is not transformed into an expulsion for a last man foul. Less than a minute into the second half Napoli scored the equaliser. Hojlund serves Vergara deep who appears in front of Butez and scores with an angled low shot. In the 4th minute Ramon brings down Hojlund who is preparing to shoot on goal from the edge of the penalty area; Manganiello does not extract the yellow card which would have represented the expulsion for the defender and provokes harsh protests from the Azzurri. Fabregas at that point immediately replaces Ramon with Kempf. After a quarter of an hour Conte sends Politano, Spinazzola and debutant Alisson onto the pitch to make better use of the sidelines. Napoli’s pressure and aggression increase considerably. The pace of the match, however, fades away as the minutes pass and neither team manages to create any more scoring opportunities. Regular time ends 1-1 and we go to penalties which decide the outcome of the match in favor of Fabregas’ team.
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