2014 Coppa Italia Final

The 2014 Coppa Italia Final decided the winner of the 2013–14 Coppa Italia, the 66th season of Italy's main football cup. It was played on 3 May 2014 at the Stadio Olimpico in Rome, between Fiorentina and Napoli. Napoli won the game 3-1, with two early goals from Lorenzo Insigne and a late third by substitute Dries Mertens, although they had Gökhan Inler sent off in the second half. Juan Manuel Vargas scored Fiorentina's goal.

As Napoli qualified for the UEFA Champions League by their league position, Fiorentina as runners-up qualified for the Group Stage of the 2014–15 UEFA Europa League. This was the last season in which cup runners-up could qualify for the Europa League if the winner had already qualified for the Champions League.^[2] Napoli went on to play in the 2014 Supercoppa Italiana against the 2013–14 Serie A champions Juventus, and won.

The final was marred by pre-match violence, which delayed the scheduled kick-off time. Three Napoli fans were shot, one of whom died following a two-month coma. Club President Aurelio De Laurentiis dedicated Napoli's victory to the wounded fans.

Background

Fiorentina manager Vincenzo Montella aimed for his team to finish fourth in Serie A and win the Coppa Italia

Fiorentina played their 10th Coppa Italia final, having won six, including their last in 2001. It was Napoli's ninth, and they had previously won four, including their last final in 2012.^[3]

During the league season, Fiorentina and Napoli had already played each other twice. The first fixture, on 30 October 2013 at the Stadio Artemio Franchi, resulted in a 2–1 away win for Napoli which ended Fiorentina's unbeaten home record. All of the goals came in the first half—José Callejón opened the scoring, Giuseppe Rossi equalised with a penalty and Dries Mertens scored the winner in the 36th minute. In the closing stages of the game, Christian Maggio was sent off for the visitors, and Juan Cuadrado for the hosts.^[4] In the reverse fixture, at Napoli's Stadio San Paolo on 23 March 2014, Fiorentina were victorious as Joaquín scored the only goal of the game with three minutes remaining; Faouzi Ghoulam had been sent off for the hosts in the first half for fouling Marko Bakić when the Fiorentina midfielder had an opportunity to score.^[5]

Prior to the cup final, Napoli were in third place in Serie A and therefore in the last position to qualify for the Champions League, eight points ahead of Fiorentina with nine points left to play for. Fiorentina manager Vincenzo Montella said before the game that his priority was to finish fourth and win the Coppa Italia. His Napoli counterpart, Rafael Benítez, warned his players not to expect to win solely based on their league position.^[6]

Players and staff of both clubs were invited to Vatican City the day before the final, where they listened to a speech by Pope Francis. Managers Montella and Benítez presented souvenirs of their clubs to the Pope.^[7]

Road to the final

Fiorentina

Fiorentina, of Serie A, entered the tournament in the Last 16 at home to Chievo, also of their league. They won 2–0 with first-half goals from Joaquín and Ante Rebić, despite the dismissal of Massimo Ambrosini.^[8] In the quarter-final on 23 January, again at home, they beat Serie B Siena 2–1 with Josip Iličić opening the scoring and Marvin Compper scoring the winner.^[9] Fiorentina's semi-final against Udinese began with a 2–1 away defeat on 4 February, but the second leg on 12 February was a 2–0 home victory with goals from Manuel Pasqual and Cuadrado.^[10]

Napoli

Napoli, also of Serie A, entered in the Last 16 on 15 January with a 3–1 home win over Atalanta, in which Callejón scored twice and Lorenzo Insigne the other goal. Their quarter-final on 29 January was a 1–0 victory at home over cup holders Lazio, with a late goal from Gonzalo Higuaín.^[11] Like Fiorentina, Napoli began their semi-final with an away defeat (3–2 against Roma), but secured their place in the final with a 3–0 victory at home on 12 February, with goals from Callejón, Higuaín and Jorginho.^[12]

Match

Team selection

Fiorentina were without record signing Mario Gómez, the German striker having suffered with injury all season. Their top scorer of the season, Giuseppe Rossi, had been injured since January but was included as a substitute. Montella opined that Rossi would be ready to represent Italy at the World Cup in June.^[6] Goalkeeper Neto and midfielder Borja Valero had been doubts due to recent finger and knee injuries respectively, but made the starting line-up.^[6] Midfielder Cuadrado was suspended, having been given a yellow card towards the end of their semi-final victory over Udinese.^[13]

Napoli's top scorer of the season, Higuaín, started despite a bruise to his shin from his last match. Benítez said "Not everyone in the team is 100 per cent, but we are in good shape".^[6]

Pre-match violence

Three Napoli fans were shot outside the stadium before the match, two with arm injuries.^[14] Ciro Esposito, who was in a critical state after being shot in the chest, died in hospital on 25 June.^[15]

Police, who found the gun, have stated that they do not believe that the shootings were related to other clashes by the two sets of fans: prior to the game, there were reports of firecrackers and other projectiles being thrown between them in the Tor di Quinto area of Rome. Kick-off was subsequently delayed as Napoli fans did not want the match to start without knowing the condition of the shot fans. When match organisers attempted to speak to the Napoli fans, accompanied by their midfielder Marek Hamšík, they were "pelted with flares and smoke bombs".^[16]

Summary

Napoli winger Insigne opened the scoring in the 11th minute by cutting in from the left and curling a shot past Fiorentina goalkeeper Neto. He doubled the lead six minutes later by connecting to Higuaín's cross and forcing a deflection off Nenad Tomović. With two goals in the final, he equalled the amount of goals that he had scored in the entire Serie A season.^[17] Fiorentina responded in the 28th minute, when Josip Iličić chipped the defence and Juan Vargas volleyed the ball into the goal.^[17] In the last minute of the half, Alberto Aquilani put the ball into Napoli's goal, but it was disallowed for offside.^[18]

Fiorentina had chances to equalise in the second half, with a long shot from substitute Matías Fernández tipped over the crossbar by Napoli goalkeeper Pepe Reina, and Iličić missing a one-on-one.^[19] The team also brought on Rossi in place of Joaquín after 72 minutes, his first action since his injury in January.^[18] Despite being reduced to ten men for the last ten minutes after a second booking for Gökhan Inler after he fouled Iličić,^[18] Napoli extended their lead in injury time when substitute Mertens scored a third after being set up by Callejón.^[17]

Details

Fiorentina v Napoli

3 May 2014 21:45 CEST

Fiorentina	1–3	Napoli
Vargas  28'	Report	Insigne  11', 17' Mertens  90+2'

Stadio Olimpico, Rome Attendance: 65,000 Referee: Daniele Orsato

Fiorentina

Napoli

GK 1 Neto RB 40 Nenad Tomović  48' CB 2 Gonzalo Rodríguez CB 15 Stefan Savić LB 23 Manuel Pasqual (c)  56' DM 7 David Pizarro RM 10 Alberto Aquilani  83' LM 66 Juan Manuel Vargas AM 20 Borja Valero  10' CF 17 Joaquín  72' CF 72 Josip Iličić  40' Substitutes: GK 25 Antonio Rosati DF 3 Modibo Diakité DF 4 Facundo Roncaglia DF 5 Marvin Compper MF 8 Marko Bakić MF 14 Matías Fernández  65'  56' MF 21 Massimo Ambrosini MF 27 Rafał Wolski MF 30 Ryder Matos MF 88 Anderson FW 32 Alessandro Matri  83' FW 49 Giuseppe Rossi  72' Manager: Vincenzo Montella

GK 25 Pepe Reina  81' RB 4 Henrique CB 21 Federico Fernández CB 33 Raúl Albiol  36' LB 31 Faouzi Ghoulam CM 88 Gökhan Inler  50', 79' CM 8 Jorginho RW 7 José Callejón AM 17 Marek Hamšík (c)  63' LW 24 Lorenzo Insigne  81' CF 9 Gonzalo Higuaín  70' Substitutes: GK 15 Roberto Colombo GK 80 Toni Doblas DF 2 Anthony Réveillère DF 5 Miguel Britos DF 11 Christian Maggio MF 14 Dries Mertens  63' MF 16 Giandomenico Mesto MF 18 Juan Zúñiga MF 20 Blerim Džemaili MF 85 Valon Behrami  81' FW 19 Goran Pandev  70' FW 91 Duván Zapata Manager: Rafael Benítez

Post-match

Napoli supporters invaded the pitch to celebrate following their team's victory. However, they were brought under control in order to allow the trophy ceremony to take place.^[18]

Aurelio De Laurentiis, club president of Napoli, dedicated the cup win to the then unidentified fan who had been shot before the match and operated on.^[20] On the pre-match violence, Demetrio Albertini, vice president of the Italian Football Federation, said, "It certainly wasn't a great scene, what we displayed today alongside football, for a football lover like me, it was an ugly display."^[20]

As cup winners, Napoli qualified for the 2014 Supercoppa Italiana in which they would face Serie A champions Juventus. The match had traditionally taken place in August, but Napoli requested it be moved due to their Champions League play-off that month. The fixture was eventually played on 22 December during the league's winter break, at the Jassim Bin Hamad Stadium in Doha, Qatar. It finished 1–1 after 90 minutes, 2–2 after extra time, and Napoli won 6–5 in the penalty shootout.^[21]

References