So, you have played 20 league matches so far this season and are rock bottom.
In fact, you have yet to claim a single win and now are travelling to the Italian capital to face AS Roma in the Coppa Italia quarter-finals.
Only one outcome surely?
Well, no… actually.
Instead, a result which not only defied SBOTOP Coppa Italia betting odds, but blew them out of the water.
For giant-killers Cremonese somehow defeated Roma 2-1 at the Stadio Olimpico to set up their first Coppa Italia semi-final since 1987.
Yes, Cremonese surprisingly knocked out Napoli in the last 16 but the Serie A leaders rested key players with a first title in more than 30 years their priority.
This was different.
Just before the half hour, Marash Kumbulla was caught napping in the centre-circle and Cyriel Dessers robbed him to sprint towards goal.
He was brought down by Rui Patricio for a penalty and Dessers blasted the resultant spot-kick into the roof of the net.
Roma boss Jose Mourinho made four changes at the break but Cremonese quickly doubled their lead and again it was self-inflicted.
Roger Ibanez slipped over four minutes after the restart, and, as David Okereke rolled across for Charles Pickel’s wayward shot, Zeki Celik accidentally turned the ball into his own net.
The hosts were desperate to get back into the contest and had Tammy Abraham’s curling shot found the net, instead of bouncing off the inside of the far post with 13 minutes remaining, we could have been set for a frantic finish.
Instead, in the fourth minute of stoppage time, Abraham found Andrea Belotti who half-volleyed into the far bottom corner, but it was too late.
Cremonese will now face Fiorentina who are chasing their first major trophy for 22 years.
That’s after second half goals from Luka Jovic and Jonathan Ikoné were enough to book Viola’s spot and avenge a recent league defeat by Torino.
After opportunities for both teams in Florence, the breakthrough arrived in the 65th minute when a sort corner was played to Aleksa Terzić whose cross was headed home by Jovic at the far post.
In stoppage time, Ikoné sealed the victory— and a place in the final four — with a fine strike into the bottom right corner in the final minute after good work from Arthur Cabral.
Cabral also hit the crossbar in stoppage time before Yann Karamoh pulled one back for Torino to set up a nervy final few minutes.
Holders Inter Milan were the first team to seal their place as they saw off Atalanta, thanks to a solitary goal 12 minutes into the second half.
Matteo Darmian found himself high up the pitch and in a position to receive the ball on the edge of the box, letting it roll across his body before pulling the trigger with a clinical left-footed effort which fizzed across goal and nestled into the far corner.
In a close encounter, it left Atalanta rueing a chance moments earlier as Jeremie Boga raced towards the touchline and pulled back a cross into the danger zone which Andre Onana beat away, yet Joakim Maehle could only blast the rebound over the bar.
Inter will now meet Juventus in the semi-finals and a contest with the potential for Coppa Italia highlights aplenty.
That’s after the Turin giants, still reeling from a 15 points league deduction for “financial irregularities” and “false accounting” in relation to historic transfer dealings, saw off 2019 Coppa Italia winners Lazio.
It was a match in which Federico Chiesa and Dusan Vlahovic started together for the first time for Juve.
When Vlahovic first made the move to Turin just over a year ago, Chiesa had just been ruled out for the rest of the season with a ruptured anterior cruciate ligament in his knee.
The two players were teammates at Fiorentina before that and the last time they started a match together was also Chiesa’s final appearance in the Viola jersey.
Against Lazio and Maurizio Sarri, the manager who guided them to the Serie A title in 2020, it turned out neither player was involved in the decisive moment a minute before the break.
Filip Kostic had already seen an angled drive fingertipped expertly away by Luis Maximiano but the keeper didn’t cover himself in glory when he flapped at a Kostic delivery and Gleison Bremer headed home.
With that Juventus had a perfect start to February after a January to forget.
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