Coppa Italia: Frosinone shocks the champions

SSC Napoli suffered a real blow on Tuesday evening in the round of 16 of the Coppa Italia. The culprit: Frosinone.

19 December 2023

From: do

The roles in the round of 13 of the Coppa Italia between Napoli and Frosinone were actually clearly assigned. On one side was the reigning Italian League champions, who admittedly did not live up to their ambitions this season. On the other hand, there was Frosinone, the newcomer from the previous Serie B season, who is currently ranked 4th in the top league of the boot state. Nevertheless, everything turned out differently at the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona in southern Italy. Frosinone won 0-XNUMX in Naples and qualified for the quarter-finals.

Although Walter Mazzarri initially rested his best players, the hosts had quality on the pitch. Giovanni Simeone and Giacomo Raspadori in particular confused the Frosinone defense several times in the first half. For example, the former scored the opening goal, which was then disallowed by the VAR referee (37th). The second slammed the ball onto the post from a sharp left position (22'). But despite all their efforts, the reigning Scudetto winners were unable to take the lead in the first 45 minutes. Mazzarri had enough and then brought in his offensive stars.

Giuseppe Caso made it 2-0. © ANSA / CIRO FUSCO

In the 64th minute, Victor Osimhen and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia entered the pitch and the Napoli fans knew: now things are getting serious. However, surprisingly, things turned out quite differently. Enzo Barrenechea celebrated the Blue-Yellow's lead just a minute later after skillfully sinking the ball into the Napoli goal from a corner (65'). Then Giuseppe Caso suddenly found himself free in front of the hosts' goalkeeper and confidently scored to make it 2-0 (70'). Walid Cheddira then sank a penalty in stoppage time to make it 3-0 (90+1.) for Frosinone.

Frosinone didn't stop

However, it still didn't end there. Napoli seemed completely broken and let the guests do whatever they wanted. Abdou Harroui was then sent on by Pol Lirola and defeated Pierluigi Gollini for the fourth time in these 90 minutes. That ultimately meant: Napoli were out and Frosinone qualified for the quarter-finals.