Coppa Italia 2014: Champions advance, Milan and Napoli also through

Vincenzo Montella’s side recovered from last week’s 2-1 first-leg loss in Udine to win 2-0 at the Artemio Franchi and progress to play in Rome on May 3 in the Coppa Italia final.

Gabriel Silva missed a scissors kick in the box for Udinese, then Mati Fernandez wasted a chance to make it two for Fiorentina when he dragged wide after being allowed to run at goal unchallenged.

Jose Callejon failed to tap in Higuain’s cross turned shot at the far post. Napoli were made to pay for that failure when Roma scored a spectacular second just past the half hour mark. Strootman advanced with the ball and let rip with a 25 yard rocket, which flew past Reina into the top corner.

Two minutes before half time, Gervinho burst clear again. Totti’s failure to keep up ruled out a square pass, so the forward cut the ball back for Maicon. Raul Albiol did enough to force the Brazilian to shoot into the side netting.

The Stadio Friuli pitch had done well to absorb a couple of days of rain and both sets of players were greeted by a light downpour. Di Natale saw an early shot blocked by Gonzalo Rodriguez, while Mati Fernandez fired over from the edge of the box.

Di Natale unwittingly deflected a Nico Lopez effort wide, but the veteran was in an offside position and couldn’t get out of the way in time.

It took less than a minute for Napoli to strike back, with Jose Callejon scoring an absolute peach of a goal. Anthony Reveillere’s cross for him was waist high so he took it on the volley and hit a belter from an angle just inside the post. It was tremendous and the match looked set to be a thriller.

Unfortunately, that was the end of the first half entertainment. The two sides were dreadful until the break and made those opening 15 minutes feel like ages earlier.

Milan took the lead on 28 minutes. Pazzini turned provider to cross for an unmarked Robinho to guide a diving header into the net. Three minutes later, Pazzini finally got the goal he was craving. Poli lifted a ball into the box and the forward let it drop before connecting with a sliding volley into the bottom corner.

Honda managed to grab his first goal in front of his new fans just two minutes after the restart. Leali could only parry Montolivo’s long range effort, allowing Honda to lift the rebound over the fallen shot stopper. Pazzini should have made it four moments later. He timed his run to collect Honda’s through ball, only to balloon his effort into the stands.

Catania head coach Luigi De Canio used the game to give several fringe players a runout, while opposite number Mario Beretta named a strong lineup to keep his players sharp during the Serie B winter break.

The goal woke Siena up, with the visitors taking control of the game. Valiani flashed wide from 25 yards and Niccolo Giannetti shot over after the Catania defence backed off.

The visitors saw more of the ball in the opening few minutes, but struggled to do anything with it. Lazio’s defence was watertight, and they looked comfortably the more dangerous side when they broke forward on the counter-attack. Their opening goal 25 minutes in came as no surprise, as Felipe Anderson’s low shot from the edge of the area was parried straight into the path of Perea; pouncing to net his first ever Coppa Italia goal.

That was until the first minute of stoppage time, when Lazio produced a winning goal from nowhere. Candreva’s low cross from the right found Perea in the area, with the young Colombian capitalising on some slack goalkeeping from Bajza to prod home and seal victory.

Lazio injuries and suspensions

Out: Lorik Cana (injured). In doubt: Federico Marchetti, Bruno Pereirinha.