Napoli 1-1 Cagliari (9-8 on pens): Conte's team qualify for Coppa Italia QFs

Napoli booked their place in the quarter-finals of the Coppa Italia after edging a thrilling penalty shootout 9-8 against Cagliari following a goalless draw in normal time. 

Match Report

Milinkovic-Savic's shootout heroics help Napoli qualify for Coppa Italia quarters.

Lorenzo Lucca saw his 28th-minute opener cancelled out by substitute Sebastiano Esposito in the second half, with spot-kicks needed at Stadio Diego Armando Maradona. 

And Napoli goalkeeper Vanja Milinkovic-Savic proved to be Antonio Conte's hero, scoring in the shootout before saving Zito Luvumbo's penalty, allowing Alessandro Buongiorno to secure their progression to the next round. 

A low-key first half burst into life just before the 30th minute when Matteo Politano played a short corner to Antonio Vergara before picking out Lucca at the back post with a pinpoint cross, with the striker making no mistake with his header.

Politano and Lucca looked like Napoli's most threatening options, but they failed to double their advantage before Esposito's equaliser. The ball fell kindly to the substitute after Gennaro Borrelli was tackled by Scott McTominay, and Esposito fired home at the near post.

Rasmus Hojlund, Noa Lang, and David Neres all came off the bench, following McTominay's earlier introduction, as Napoli looked to seal victory within normal time, and the Scotsman went close but was denied by a diving Elia Caprile with three minutes to go.

And the Cagliari goalkeeper was on hand again to keep out Neres' attempt in stoppage-time to send the tie to a penalty shootout, where his counterpart proved to be the hero.

Both teams scored their first three penalties before Mattia Felici's spot-kick struck the woodwork for the visitors, but Caprile kept out Neres' penalty to force a sudden-death scenario, where eventually Napoli prevailed thanks to Buongiorno. 

Data Debrief: Huge sigh of relief for Conte

Conte's choice to bench some of his key players eventually paid off, though Cagliari were not far away from causing a major upset in the cup.

The visitors produced 0.69 expected goals (xG) from seven shots compared to Napoli's 1.02 from 11 attempts, four of which were on target.

Lucca was subbed off before the shootout, but he certainly proved his worth to Conte. The striker recorded the most shots (three) and touches in the box (six) for his side, while also winning three of his four aerial duels.

Match Events

0' The match is about to start!

28' GOAL! Napoli 1-0 Cagliari (Lorenzo Lucca)

50' Highlight from Napoli vs Cagliari

67' GOAL! Napoli 1-1 Cagliari (Sebastiano Esposito)

87' Highlight from Napoli vs Cagliari

Line-ups

Napoli XI: Juan, Spinazzola, Politano, Vanja Milinković-Savić, Pasquale Mazzocchi, M.Olivera, Elmas, Sam Beukema, Lorenzo Lucca, Giuseppe Ambrosino, Antonio Vergara

Subs: Di Lorenzo, Lobotka, Rrahmani, Nikita Contini, Neres, Buongiorno, McTominay, Lang, Højlund, Mathias Ferrante

Cagliari XI: Pavoletti, Deiola, Luperto, Michel Adopo, Gaetano, Alessandro Di Pardo, Elia Caprile, Adam Obert, Zito Luvumbo, Semih Kılıçsoy, Juan Rodríguez

Subs: Radunovic, Rog, Gabriele Zappa, Esposito, Mattia Felici, Gennaro Borrelli, Giuseppe Ciocci, Nicolò Cavuoti, Ivan Sulev, Matteo Prati, Nicola Pintus, Riyad Idrissi, Joseph Liteta, Yael Trepy, Nicola Grandu