Home>News Center>Sports | ||
Lowly Atalanta dump Juve out of Italian Cup
Atalanta, currently anchored to the bottom of Serie A with just one win in 17 matches, sensationally dumped league leaders Juventus out of the Italian Cup to clinch a place in the quarter-finals.
Juventus, who have won the cup nine times, more than any other team, were held at home to a 3-3 draw having led three times and lost 5-3 on aggregate to the Bergamo club. Andrea Lazzari, who netted both of Atalanta's goals in their first leg win, was once again the architect of Juve's downfall, scoring a hat-trick for the plucky visitors. The only positive thing Juve could take from a demoralising defeat was the return from injury of striker David Trezeguet, who grabbed Juve's third goal 11 minutes from time and played the whole 90 minutes. The France international recently underwent shoulder surgery and was making his first appearance since October 3. Atalanta's prize for beating the Turin giants is a last eight meeting with Inter Milan, who on Wednesday knocked out Bologna. Roma overwhelmed Siena 5-1 away from home to advance to the quarter-finals. Trailing 2-1 from the first leg, Roma stormed into a two-goal lead thanks to a header from Greek Euro 2004 winner Traianos Dellas and Francesco Totti's angled shot before the game was suspended. A combination of fog and smoke from the supporters' flares had made visibility so poor that referee Emidio Morganti had to bring the third round, second leg tie to a halt in the 35th minute. As the players waited for the mist to clear, the travelling Roma fans kept lighting flares despite Totti's pleas for them to stop and the game was held up for an hour and a quarter. When the match resumed, Siena halved the deficit from the penalty spot on the stroke of half-time before second-half strikes from Antonio Cassano, Vincenzo Montella and Daniele Corvia completed an emphatic Roma victory and set up a last eight meeting with Fiorentina, who knocked out Parma on Wednesday. In Thursday's early ties, Cagliari and Udinese booked their places in the next round after wins against Lazio and Lecce respectively. Cagliari lost 3-2 away to the cup holders Lazio after extra-time for a 4-4 aggregate score, but went through on the away goals rule. The Sardinians will face Sampdoria, who knocked out second division side Torino. Udinese lost 4-3 at home to the Puglians for an 8-8 aggregate score, but they too advanced on away goals thanks to their 5-4 first leg win. They will meet AC Milan, who ousted Palermo, in the two-legged quarter finals.
|
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||