Napoli knocked out of Italian Cup

Serie A leader Napoli crashed out of the Italian Cup when a weakened side lost 2-1 at home to Atalanta in the quarterfinals on Tuesday.

Napoli coach Maurizio Sarri made a host of changes but did start the club’s all-time top scorer Marek Hamsik. The Slovak, however, was anonymous and was replaced by Lorenzo Insigne after an hour.

After Belgian Timothy Castagne put Atalanta ahead in the 50th minute, Sarri also brought on star striker Dries Mertens but the Belgium international was powerless to stop Alejandro Gomez finishing from close range to put the Bergamo-based visitor 2-0 up.

Mertens scored in the 84th minute but Napoli was unable to find an equalizer.