Cremonese pulls off another Italian Cup shock to beat Roma
MILAN: Hapless in Serie A, Cremonese pulled off another shock in the Italian Cup on Wednesday by beating Roma 2-1 to reach the semi-finals for only the second time in their history - and the first in 36 years.
Last-place Cremonese, without a win in the league, followed up their cup victory at Napoli in the last round by eliminating Jose Mourinho’s Roma.
It will face Fiorentina in their first semi-final since 1987. The other semi-final pits holder Inter Milan against either Juventus or Lazio.
Cremonese’s win at Napoli was coach Davide Ballardini’s first match in charge and he followed that up with a draw at Bologna and a narrow loss to Inter in Serie A.
Wednesday’s match at Rome’s Stadio Olimpico was Cremonese’s first quarter-final since 1997 but the players didn’t let the occasion get to them and impressed from the start. Roma defender Marash Kumbulla was partly to blame for the opener, however, as he took too long on the ball, allowing Cyriel Dessers to steal it off him on the halfway line and sprint downfield into the area where he was brought down by goalkeeper Rui Patricio.
Dessers dusted himself down and fired a precise penalty into the top let corner to give the visitors a 28th-minute lead.
Mourinho rang the changes at haltime but Cremonese doubled their advantage four minutes ater the break. David Okereke raced down the right flank and rolled the ball across for Charles Pickel, who tried to flick it on to Frank Tsadjout but it was deflected into his own net by Roma defender Mehmet Celik to send the 200 traveling fans wild.
Andrea Beloti pulled one back for Roma in the fourth minute of stoppage time.
Joyforjovic:fiorentinaavengedtheirleague loss Torino by beating it 2-1 in the quarter-finals.
Ater chances for both teams in Florence, the breakthroughwasmadeinthe65thminute.acorner was taken short to Aleksa Terzic, who whipped in a cross for Luka Jovic to head in at the far post.
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