Keeper Jean Butez was Como‘s hero as they beat six-times winners Napoli in a penalty shootout to reach their first Coppa Italia semifinal in 40 years.
Cesc Fabregas’ men, whose last and only appearance in the last four came in 1986, held their nerve to see off the reigning Serie A champions 7-6 with Butez keeping out skipper Stanislav Lobotka’s spot-kick in front of a stunned home crowd at the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona to book a showdown with Inter Milan.
For Fabregas, the game proved a personal triumph as he got the better of Antonio Conte, under whom he played with great success at Chelsea.
The game had finished 1-1 after 90 minutes with Antonio Vergara cancelling out Martin Baturina’s first-half penalty, with both sides having late chances to win it but ultimately having to fight it out from 12 yards.
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In a fiercely-contested start, neither team was able to make any real headway as the game was fought out largely in midfield, although Napoli striker Rasmus Højlund, whose late penalty secured a 3-2 league win at Genoa on Saturday, stretched the Como defence on more than once occasion.
However, it was the visitors who produced the first attempt on goal when full-back Álex Valle was played into space down the left and crossed for Niko Vaz to send a downward header straight at keeper Vanja Milinkovic-Savic with 10 minutes played.
Lobotka kept Butez on his toes with a speculative 16th-minute strike from distance, but Napoli defender Juan Jesus had to be at his best to deny Valle after he surged into the left channel and went for goal with 32 minutes gone.
The visitors took the lead six minutes before the break when, after Mathías Olivera had felled Ivan Smolcic inside the box as he attempted to reach Valle’s cross, Baturina dispatched the resulting penalty into the bottom corner despite Milinkovic-Savic going the right way.
Napoli were back in it within a minutes of the restart when Vergara ran on to Højlund’s flick and slid the ball past the advancing Butez to level.
Paz had to hack Amir Rrahmani’s 65th-minute header off the line with Napoli making a big push, but Milinkovic-Savic had to pull off a fingertip 83rd-minute save to deny substitute Mërgim Vojvoda a winner and take it to penalties.
Substitute Romelu Lukaku dragged his attempt wide to hand Como a 3-1 lead, but Milinkovic-Savic saved from Máximo Perrone to drag them back into it only for Butez to palm away Lobotka’s effort and sent his team-mates and the travelling supporters into raptures.
