A glimpse of the future

By: Joe | August 19th, 2007

Ezequiel Lavezzi, “El Pocho,” provided a view of Napoli’s future last night. Lavezzi’s hat trick secured a home date with Livorno on Wednesday, August 29 and saved coach the Edy Reja the embarassment of bowing out to a Pisa side who had only scored 9 goals in 17 road matches last season in Serie C1. Reja decided to rest some starters in a match that should have been a gimme for the Azzurri. Instead, Pisa shocked the 20,000 Napoli tifosi by grabbing a 19′ lead on a strike from Belarus striker Vitali Kutuzov (on loan for Parma). The former Milan man’s angled drive sent shock waves through San Paolo and threatened to end Napoli’s Coppa Italia run barely before it got off the ground.

Reja fielded a squad that included backup keeper Matteo Gianello, useless captain Francesco Montervino, over rated Argentine striker Roberto Sosa and didn’t feature the squad’s three young signing (Gargano, Hamsik and Lavezzi) who performed so well earlier in the week against Cesena.

After being down 1-0 at the start of the half, Reja regained consciousness and inserted Lavezzi into the lineup for Gatti and El Pocho paid immediate dividends. Lavezzi scored a wonder goal from roughly 30 metres beating Pisa keeper Daniele Padelli (on loan from Sampdoria). The match was still in doubt and went into extra time when the young Argentine bagged two more for Napoli’s first hat trick in 14 years when Daniel Fonseca put three past Reggina.

Lavezzi’s brilliance salvaged Napoli from an embarrassing home defeat, kept alive the 2+ year home unbeaten streak and avoided the fate suffered by Bologna and Genoa both of whom bowed out early in this year’s Coppa Italia. Napoli will face Livorno at the San Paolo three short days after Napoli’s first Serie A match in seven years against Cagliari.

The last of the single-elimination Coppa Italia matches occur on the 29th and include the lower seeded Serie A teams. A win past this fixture will secure the winner a spot in the round of 16 where Serie A’s big boys are introduced. The format switches to home-road ties until the final which this year will be a single match to determine the Coppa Italia winner. A date with Lazio is in the cards for Napoli if it can navigate a positive result from the Livorno match…and Reja can get his head removed from his rectum.

YouTube highlights

Schedule of 3rd round elimination matches:

Rimini-Torino
Cagliari-Siena
Bari-Udinese
Triestina-Catania
Napoli-Livorno
Ascoli-Atalanta
Juventus-Parma
Piacenza-Reggina

Other results:

Bologna 4-5 Triestina (pk’s) Scorers: Mingazzin 20 (B), Graffiedi 73 (T)

Ascoli 3-2 Genoa (aet) Scorers: Soncin 32 (A), Di Vaio 53 (G), Melucci 86 (A), Papa Waigo 88 (G), Centi 111 (A)

Bari 2-0 Vicenza Scorers: Lanzafame 40 (B), Santoruvo 56 (B)

Rimini 4-0 Treviso Scorers: Valiani 7 (R), Ricchiuti 29 (R), Pagano 42 (R), Cristiano og 94 (T)

Ravenna 1-2 Piacenza Scorers: Aloe 38 (R), Wolf 48 (P), Guzman pen 60 (P)