Napoli are through to the quarterfinals of the Coppa Italia, where they will face the winner of next week's Inter Milan - Genoa matchup, but they're not through without controversy. The match-winning goal in a 2-1 victory over Cesena came in the 86th minute from Goran Pandev, but it's not exactly clear whether or not his shot ever crossed the line.
Cesena put themselves in front early, with Stefan Popescu scoring the opener in the 20th minute. Eduardo Vargas, making his debut for Napoli, tried to cut out a pass towards Popescu but actually deflected it into a better path. Camilo Zuniga was caught napping and Popescu took his clear shot on goal, beating goalkeeper Antonio Rosati.
Napoli's equalizer came in the 65th minute through Edinson Cavani. Goran Pandev, who came on for Vargas at halftime, created the chance with a hard free kick that Nicola Ravaglia could only parry away. His save fell right into the path of Cavani, who hit a composed close-range finish to even up the scoring.
The winner came in similar fashion to the equalizer, off of a hard long-range effort from Pandev. The difference between that goal and the winner was that Ravaglia reacted slowly, just barely getting his hand to the ball as it was right around the goal line. The ball at least partially crossed the line before it was batted out, and the referee gave the goal after his linesman indicated that the ball had crossed the line.
On replay, it's not 100 percent clear whether or not the ball went over. It's close enough that the linesman should probably be given the benefit of the doubt, but it was a hard way to lose for Cesena, who looked very good for the first 60 minutes before falling apart.
There are 0 Comments. Add Yours.
Shortcuts to mastering the comment thread. Use wisely.
C - Next Comment
X - Mark as Read
R - Reply
Z - Mark Read & Next
Shift + C - Previous
Shift + A - Mark All Read
Comment Settings
Live comment alert: Hide it!
Comments for this post are closed.