Coppa Italia: Genoa, Sassuolo, Lecce and Empoli victories

Genoa swept Vicenza aside 3-0, 10-man Lecce beat Juve Stabia, Sassuolo squeezed past Catanzaro and Empoli needed penalties against Reggiana in the Coppa Italia First Round.

The tournament proper kicked off today following a short preliminary Coppa Italia phase.

These are all one-off games decided after 90 minutes or going direct to penalties, without the need for extra time.

Coppa Italia First Round results

Empoli 1-1 Reggiana (4-1 on penalties)

It was considerably tougher than expected for Empoli, who were held to a 1-1 draw at home by Reggiana and needed a penalty shoot-out to secure their passage to the next round.

They had been trailing 1-0 to a Cedric Gondo strike, then Rares Ilie wasted the opportunity to equalise when his penalty was saved by Edoardo Motta.

At least Ilie made up for it by forcing extra time with a goal from open play, allowing Andrea Fulignati to take centre stage with two saves in the shoot-out.

Empoli will go on to play Genoa in the next phase.

Sassuolo 1-0 Catanzaro

Sassuolo celebrated Domenico Berardi’s 400^th appearance for the club, and the veteran provided the crucial assist for Josh Doig to score the winning goal.

It wasn’t ideal from the Neroverdi just a week before their Serie A debut, but they wasted numerous chances with Armand Laurientè, Berardi and Alieu Fadera.

Sassuolo will face either Como or Sudtirol in the Second Round.

Lecce 2-0 Juve Stabia

The Salentini made life as difficult as possible for themselves when Lameck Banda was sent off for a foolish lunge in first half stoppages.

Despite being a man down for the entire second half, they still got the victory against Juve Stabia thanks to Nikola Krstovic converting a penalty for Thomas Battistella’s handling offence, and a late Mohamed Kaba finish on Francesco Camarda’s assist.

Lecce will face either Milan or Bari in the next phase.

Genoa 3-0 Vicenza

Patrick Vieira’s team made short work of Vicenza at Marassi in their first official match of the season.

Valentin Carboni opened the scoring with a left-foot strike from the Aaron Martin assist, then Francesco Benassai accidentally put the ball into his own net before half-time.

Nicolae Stanciu sealed the comfortable victory with a finish into the roof of the net, so Genoa will play Empoli in the Second Round of the Coppa Italia.