Fabregas revealed precious Como advice for penalties with Napoli
Cesc Fabregas reveals what he told Como about his experience ahead of the penalty shoot-out against Napoli to reach the Coppa Italia semi-final. ‘I’d been in their situation.’
The Lariani will face Inter in the Coppa Italia semi-final, a stage of the tournament this club had only ever reached once before in 1986, when once again they eliminated the reigning Serie A title holders.
It was Verona back then, but Napoli this time, needing a sudden death penalty shoot-out following the 1-1 draw at the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona.
Martin Baturina had converted the opening spot-kick before half-time, while Antonio Vergara scored the equaliser straight after the restart.
Fabregas taking Como to new heights
“It is an historic achievement, a positive time, but we have another very important game coming up on Saturday. We must leave the euphoria to the end of the season,” Fabregas told Sport Mediaset.
“It will be tough to shake off the adrenaline, but we listened to music for 10 minutes in the locker room, now we will begin preparing for the weekend, as we want all three points.”
There was a moment of controversy on 50 minutes when Jacobo Ramon was very lucky not to receive a second yellow card for his foul on Rasmus Hojlund just outside the box.
Seeing that his player was fortunate, Fabregas immediately moved to substitute the defender moments later.
“Obviously, he would get sent off at the next foul, he is a 20-year-old who is lacking experience, this is his first full season as a professional. A good thing about being that young is you don’t feel the pressure, but the negative is that you can be a bit too free and easy as well.
“I had to take him off, because going down to 10 men in a situation like this would make everything far more difficult.”
The decisive errors in the shoot-out were Romelu Lukaku drilling wide and Jean Butez parrying from Stanislav Lobotka, while Vanja Milinkovic-Savic saved from Maximo Perrone.
“I thought the first half was good, but in the second less so, and unfortunately it’s not the first, second or even third time that has happened. It means we need to improve a few things,” noted Fabregas.
“We had from the start sent a positive signal, that we came here to play on the front foot and not just wait and defend. We did do things a little differently in defence today, because we didn’t press too high, as they have players with such quality who can find those spaces and hurt you.
“In order to compete in Serie A, you need a centre-forward of the level of Hojlund and he’s so good. I understand that Napoli had a lot of injuries, but we had suffered with quite a few injuries too in January and February, but with a young squad we always tried to take the initiative and play on the front foot.
“We moved to five at the back for a few minutes, as don’t forget we are Como, and we are a small club in this competition, so in that situation we preferred to lock it down.”
In his speech to the team before the penalties, Fabregas told the Como players to ‘enjoy’ themselves, which is quite an ask in that tense atmosphere.
“I thanked them for giving me this experience as a coach, as a person, because many of them had never been through an experience like this, so it was fundamental they had belief, but also needed to enjoy this moment.
“I told them, I’d been in Napoli’s situation of being the ‘big’ team expected to win and that it adds a bit of fear. We were also lucky to be first in the draw, as that helps. I thanked the players for all they do, as removing a few older lads like Moreno, Morata and Alberto, the average age is 22.
“We need to maintain humility and keep working, because we’ve got three in a row now.”
The semi-final is the only stage of the Coppa Italia that is played over two legs, so with home and away fixtures, although it’s not a long trip in this Lombardy Derby.
The other semi-final is between Atalanta and either Bologna or Lazio.