Coppa Italia Recap: Roma pay penalty as Juventus and Napoli ease into quarters

Roma suffered a shock penalty shootout defeat to
Spezia in the last 16 of the Coppa Italia, where holders
Juventus, Napoli and Carpi won.

Serie B side Spezia claimed a penalty shootout triumph to dump
Roma out of the Coppa Italia and pile further pressure onto their
coach Rudi Garcia.

Frenchman Garcia was defiant over his future after the match,
insisting he would "stay on and fight to the death", but his
players lacked similar fire during the preceding goalless 120
minutes.

Miralem Pjanic and Edin Dzeko handed the top-flight hosts a
nightmare start from the penalty spot at the Stadio Olimpico,
while Spezia held their nerve impeccably from 12 yards for a 4-2
shootout triumph.

Victory sees Spezia progress to the last eight for only the third
time in history, where they will face third-tier outfit Alessandria,
who overcame Genoa on Tuesday.

Holders Juventus endured no such trouble as they brushed
aside 10-man Torino 4-0 in a typically feisty Turin derby.

A pumped-up Simone Zaza made the most of a starting berth in
attack by scoring a goal in each half for the hosts – his second
coming in the aftermath of Torino defender Cristian Molinaro
being sent off for a second booking.

Zaza's replacement Paulo Dybala made it 3-0 before Paul
Pogba floated home a wonderful free-kick to complete the
scoring and seal a quarter-final meeting with either Udinese or
last season's beaten finalists Lazio.

Napoli made similarly light work of Serie A basement boys
Verona with a 3-0 win at the Stadio San Paolo.

Omar El Kaddouri converted Gonzalo Higuain's cutback to open
the scoring and a wonderful solo goal from Dries Mertens made
it 2-0 after 12 minutes.

Mertens was brought down by Mohamed Fares, only for Marek
Hamsik to miss a second-half penalty, but substitute Jose
Callejon ended Verona's lingering hopes in the 75th minute.

Elsewhere, Verona's fellow strugglers Carpi shocked Fiorentina
with a 1-0 win at the Stadio Franchi – Antonio Di Gaudio crafting
a winner 14 minutes from time to book a last-eight showdown
with the winner of Sampdoria versus AC Milan.

Both teams finished with 10 men as a stoppage time spat saw
Jerry Mbakogu and Gonzalo Rodriguez received their second
yellow cards.