Insigne brace seals Coppa
Napoli clinched the Coppa Italia with a 3-1 win over Fiorentina in
Rome, although the game was overshadowed by crowd disturbances which
forced a 45-minute delay to kick-off.
A Lorenzo Insigne brace
inside the first 20 minutes and a late Dries Mertens goal earned Rafael
Benitez his first trophy as coach of Napoli, with Juan Vargas on target
for the Viola.
Napoli ended the game with only 10 men after Gokhan
Inler was given his marching orders, but the Azzurri held on to win the
Coppa Italia for the fifth time.
Kick-off was delayed by 45
minutes while there were doubts it would even commence at all after news
of a supporter being seriously hurt outside the stadium reached those
who were inside the ground.
Napoli captain Marek Hamsik was
required to speak to his club's supporters to calm them down before the
teams emerged for what the real fans had descended on the Stadio
Olimpico to see - a cup final.
Despite the disrupted preparations,
the game immediately sparked into life with Gonzalo Higuain going close
to opening the scoring in the sixth minute.
Only five minutes
later, Hamsik threated a perfectly-weighted ball into the path of
Insigne, allowing the only Italian in the Napoli starting XI to
concentrate on curling a right-footed shot into the far corner, off the
inside of the post.
Insigne it was again who doubled a dominant Napoli's lead in the 17th minute.
Higuain
pulled the ball across goal, aiming for Hamsik but instead finding
Insigne, whose shot was deflected past Neto off Nenad Tomovic.
The
game was certainly doing its best to make up for the unsavoury
pre-match incidents and Vargas ensured even more drama when he pulled a
goal back in the 28th minute.
He lashed a powerful left-footed volley past Jose Reina after the ball looped over the Napoli defence.
On
the stroke of half-time, with Fiorentina now chasing an equaliser,
Alberto Aquilani thought he had found it only to see the flag raised for
offside.
The Viola continued to push for a second in the second
half and, only minutes after coming on, Matias Fernandez sent a shot
just over the crossbar.
Giuseppe Rossi was sent on by Fiorentina
coach Vincenzo Montella, bringing an end to his five-month injury
absence just over a month before the start of the World Cup, but he was
only able to watch as Goran Pandev wasted the chance to seal victory at
the other end.
Mertens put the Macedonian through on goal but he tried to nudge the ball tamely past Neto, who made an easy stop.
That
miss looked like it could come back to haunt Napoli after Inler
received his second yellow card in the 79th minute, leaving the Azzurri
with just 10 men.
The final 10 minutes saw an onslaught on the
Napoli goal, with Josip Ilicic wasting the best chance five minutes from
time after being put through by Alessandro Matri as he placed his shot
beyond the far post.
Napoli then broke with Jose Callejon
threading a pass through to Mertens, who clinched the Coppa Italia for
Benitez's men by picking his spot in the far corner of Neto's goal.
source: http://www.espnfc.com/us/en/report/388636/report.html?soccernet=true
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