Coppa Italia: Round 1 (Day 1)

Piacenza, Bologna and Vicenza are through to the second round of the 2007-08 Coppa Italia.

The tournament kicked off this evening at the Stadio Garilli between Piacenza and Spezia. Although the home side dominated the encounter, they struggled to make their chances count. It took until the 74th minute to break the deadlock, as Michele Anaclerio finally found a way through the attentive Spezia defence by meeting a corner kick.

The game turned again five minutes later, as the visitors had Giovanni Rossi sent off, hitting their hopes of staging a comeback and forcing extra time. Playing against 10 men, Piacenza secured a 2-0 advantage with Aurelian Bogdan Patrascu’s splendid free kick on 87 minutes.

The Biancorossi will go on to face the winners of Ravenna-Chievo in the second round on Wednesday August 18.

Bologna squeezed past local rivals Modena in the derby to reach the second round. The Rossoblu had gone behind at the start of the second half when Salvatore Bruno gave Modena the surprise lead.

However, Massimo Marazzina grabbed the equaliser and Carrus converted the decisive penalty on 76 minutes. In that incident, Ungari was sent off for his foul that terminated a clear goalscoring opportunity – and with it Modena’s hopes of getting back into the game.

Bologna reach the second round of the Coppa Italia, where they will face either Triestina or Mantova.

Messina are out of the Coppa Italia at the first hurdle after an epic struggle with Vicenza that ended 2-2, 5-6 on penalties.

The Sicilians were relegated from Serie A last season and did not get off to a good start in the 2007-08 campaign either.

Former Parma youngster Daniele Degano had given them the lead after 36 minutes and Flavio Lazzari seemed to put the result beyond doubt at the 73rd. However, Vicenza staged a remarkable comeback from 2-0 down to draw 2-2 in the last 13 minutes.

First Cristian Raimondi got them back into it, then Francesco Scardina secured a shock equaliser deep into stoppages.

Extra time failed to change the situation, so at 2-2 the teams went to a penalty shoot-out. Vicenza came out on top at the end of the kicks and go on to face either Albinoleffe or Bari in the second round of the Coppa Italia.

Source: C4 Football Italia