Atalanta make it into the Coppa Italia final again! Beating Napoli 3-1 at the Gewiss Stadium in Bergamo in the semi-final second leg, the Nerazzurri book a place in the last stage of the national competition after the 0-0 draw in the first leg: the challenge against Juventus to establish the winner of the cup will be on 19 May.
The Nerazzurri got off to a great start and broke the deadlock after only ten minutes: Zapata found the back of the net with a thunderbolt finish from the edge of the box to make it 1-0. On 16 Atalanta doubled their lead: after a splendid give and go, Zapata provides an assist for Pessina, whose finish ended into the net after hitting the post. The first half saw Atalanta lead 2-0.
Napoli pulled one back through Lozano after eight minutes into the second half: the Mexican forward took two attempts to beat Gollini. The Napoli defence denied Gosens and Zapata on 62 and Ospina pulled off a great save on 67 to deny Iličić from the edge, while Zapata couldn’t find the back of the net from the resulting corner. Ospina tipped Pessina’s effort over the bar on 69. Gollini made an excellent save on 75 to deny Osimhen from close range, and then Pessina scored a brace on 78 to restore the two-goal advantage with a chip shot to beat Ospina. The 3-1 goal from the Nerazzurri midfielder sealed the Coppa Italia final for the second time in three years.
ATALANTA 3-1 NAPOLI
Scorers: Zapata 10 (A), Pessina 16 (A), Lozano 53 (N), Pessina 78 (A)
Atalanta: Gollini, Toloi, Palomino (Caldara 72), Djimsiti, Šutalo, de Roon, Freuler, Gosens, Pessina (Pašalić 90), Muriel (Iličić 56), Zapata. Bench: Rossi, Sportiello, Lammers, Malinovskyi, Kovalenko, Ruggeri, Ghislandi, Miranchuk. Coach: Gian Piero Gasperini.
Napoli: Ospina, Di Lorenzo, Maksimovic, Rrahmani, Hysaj (Mario Rui 42), Elmas (Politano 46), Bakayoko (Demme 64), Zielinski (Lobotka 64), Lozano, Osimhen (Petagna 79), Insigne. Bench: Meret, Contini, Zedadka, Fabian Ruiz, Costanzo, Cioffi. Coach: Gennaro Gattuso.
Referee: Federico La Penna from Roma 1.
Assistants: Salvatore Longo from Paola and Giovanni Baccini from Conegliano.
Fourth official: Fabrizio Pasqua from Tivoli.
V.A.R.: Massimiliano Irrati from Pistoia.
A.V.A.R.: Dario Cecconi from Empoli.
Notes: Palomino (A), Hysaj (N), Zielinski (N), Di Lorenzo (N), Insigne (N) booked.
