Coppa Italia

The Coppa Italia Is The Perfect Stage For Sides To Punch Above Their Weight

The Coppa Italia Is The Perfect Stage For Sides To Punch Above Their Weight

The Coppa Italia is a mammoth competition and the perfect stage for smaller sides to punch above their weight.

Jul 25, 2019
The Coppa Italia Is The Perfect Stage For Sides To Punch Above Their Weight

Following what seems like an eternal wait for Italian football action to resume, the powers that be have announced the structure for the Coppa Italia in 2019-20. Supporters are still waiting for an announcement of the league fixtures; however, there is some news at least in terms of knockout football for the forthcoming campaign. 

There was a new winner of the trophy last term following four consecutive victories for Juventus in the previous editions of the competition. Brave Atalanta put the Old Lady to the sword at the quarterfinal stage last term, following up that impressive win with a highly entertaining 5-4 aggregate triumph over Fiorentina in a two-legged semifinal. 

Yet the trophy was just one step too far for La Dea, as they were defeated by Lazio in the final on May 15, the Biancocelesti finally victorious following losses in the final to Juve in both 2015 and 2017.

Canadian subscribers can watch the Coppa Italia live on FloFC

On August 4, no less than 78 sides will attempt to emulate the achievement of Simone Inzaghi’s men last season. That figure is comprised of nine teams from Serie D, 29 from Serie C, and 20 each from Serie B and Serie A. 

The first round will feature those from the third and fourth tiers of Italian football, as clubs such as Mantova, Sanremese, Catanzaro, and Novara fight it out for a place in the next stage of the tournament. 

Round two is held just seven days later on August 11, when the 18 winners from the initial set of fixtures are joined by 22 more clubs made up from the entirety of Serie B, plus Carpi and Padova, who were relegated into the third tier at the end of last season. 

The tournament has an interesting format, welcoming the 12 Serie A sides who finished between ninth and 20th place last season in the third round, held on August 18. They will join the 20 winners from round one and two to make 16 fixtures, with the winning sides going on to play one more round before the top-ranked teams are inserted into the fray. 

This means that just eight sides from the opening four rounds will make it through to face the teams seeded one through eight. Napoli will face the winner of match No. 55, Lazio 56, Atalanta 57, Inter 58, Milan 59, Torino 60, Roma 61, and Juventus 62. Theoretically, if one of the lesser teams has a good run, they could face one of the Serie A giants in mid-January.

It’s not like this has never happened before, either. In 2015-16, Alessandria of Serie C made it all the way through to the semifinals, beating AltoVicentino in round one, followed by Pro Vercelli, Juve Stabia, and Palermo before reaching the final phase. 

During the last 16, they pulled off a giant-killing by defeating Serie A side Genoa, then recorded a 2-1 win over Spezia in the quarterfinal. Their journey ended with a 6-0 aggregate defeat to AC Milan in the semis; however, it had been a fantastic journey for the Piemontese side.

In 2017, Serie C team Pordenone reached the quarterfinals for the first time in their history, where they faced Inter at San Siro. No one gave them a hope of any kind of result, yet the determined side took the Nerazzurri all the way to penalties, narrowly losing by five strikes to four. 

Yet the format of the competition does allow predictions for the quarterfinals if all the larger sides make it through as expected. Should this happen, those ties would look as follows:

  • Napoli-Lazio
  • Atalanta-Inter
  • Milan-Torino
  • Roma-Juventus

The eventual winners of those ties will advance to the semifinals, which is the only round of the competition to be played over two legs. They will be played around the time of February 12 and March 16, with the final to be once again held in Rome on May 13, 2020.



Once the format has been made clear, the Coppa Italia is certainly a competition to get interested in from the start, and the lengthy process makes any victory well-earned indeed. With a start date of August 4, it’s something to look out for before the regular season even starts.


Chloe Beresford specializes in Serie A for a number of outlets and can be found on Twitter and on Facebook via her page CalcioByChloe.