Siena shocked heavy favourites Napoli in the first leg of their Coppa Italia semifinal, beating their Champions League opponents 2-1 at the Artemio Franchi to set up an intriguing return fixture at the San Paolo in mid-March. In truth, Napoli should have won the game by a comfortable margin, and they'd have demolished their opponents if not for some combination of poor finishing, poor refereeing, bad luck and astonishingly good goalkeeping by Simeone Farelli.
Siena Vs. Napoli, 2012 Coppa Italia: Siena Earn Surprise Home Win
That it was still 0-0 40 minutes into the match was something of a miracle for Siena, but what followed was even more incredible - Morgan de Sanctis reacted slowly to a long punt forward, and Ferreira Regaldino was able to get there first, rounding the goalkeeper before rolling the ball into the back of the net from close range. Napoli responded instantly, but their best chance of the half ended when Edinson Cavani’s shot was saved in spectacular fashion by Farelli.
We had a similar story in the second half - Napoli dominating the match only for Siena to score again, Gaetano D'Agostino sweeping home after Andrea Rossi's second attempt at a cross. From there on out, things went crazy. Napoli blew several more chances, hit the crossbar twice and saw the ball cleared off Farelli's line on multiple instances. They were also denied one stonewall penalty and had another couple of shouts turned down. The Partenopei finally were able to force the ball into the back of the net, when Emanule Pesoli deflected an Ezequiel Lavezzi cross in, but they couldn't recover the game. and are now faced with the prospect of needing a win in the return leg to advance to the final.
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