Atalanta enter Coppa Italia semis after 21 years

IANS  |  Naples 

Atalanta stunned Napoli 2-1 here to advance to the semi-finals of the football tournament for the first time in 21 years.

(30th minute) and scored for the visitors while substitute pulled one back for Napoli on Tuesday night.

Gasperini-coached Atalanta pressed throughout the first half, disrupting the usually high-powered Napoli attack, without regulars and Mertens, reports

Atalanta limited the hosts to a single chance, a botched attempt by in the 30th minute.

Castagne put the ahead 1-0 with a goal in the 50th minute. controlled a Gomez cross and Castagne fired into the roof of the net from the right post.

Gomez doubled Atalanta's lead in the 81st minute as he charged past Vlad Chiriches on the left flank before holding off central defender and blasting into the far top corner from a tight angle.

With their backs against the wall at home, Napoli threw everyone and the effort paid off in the 85th minute as Belgian Mertens exploited a poor clearance by to cut the deficit in half.

But it wasn't enough to spare from an embarrassing second elimination of the season after failing to qualify for the knockout stage of

Atalanta's semi-final opponent will be the winner of Wednesday's Juventus-Torino clash. The other semi-final pits against AC Milan.

--IANS

pur/mr

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

First Published: Wed, January 03 2018. 15:14 IST