Napoli are out of this season's Coppa Italia after losing a penalty shootout to Como.
Martin Baturina gave Como the lead when he converted a spot-kick towards the end of the first half but the Azzurri levelled the scores immediately after the restart when Antonio Vergara powered through the visitors' defence to score his third for the club.
It remained 1-1 after 90 minutes so the match was decided by a shootout. It took 16 penalties to separate the sides, with Jean Butez saving Stanislav Lobotka's effort to eventually settle it.
This was Antonio Conte's post-match analysis:
“I must praise my players because we're exceeding our current potential. We're missing lots of players and yet we're still doing great things.
“We won a Scudetto and a Super Cup in a calendar year and it's a shame about tonight because we could have advanced on penalties. Any team would struggle with an ongoing injury emergency like this but we're not giving up and we'll keep working with belief and determination.
“I think we need improved focus from the match officials because there was a red card for a Como defender that wasn't even considered by the VAR.”
Napoli 1-1 Como (HT 0-1)
Scorers: Baturina 39 (pen), Vergara 47.
Como win 7-6 on penalties
NAPOLI: Milinkovic-Savic; Beukema, Rrahmani, Juan Jesus; Mazzocchi (Alisson Santos 60), Lobotka, Elmas, Olivera (Spinazzola 60) Giovane (Politano 60), Vergara (Gutierrez 74), Hojlund (Lukaku 74).
Coach: Conte.
COMO: Butez; Smolcic, Diego Carlos, Ramon (Kempf 53), Valle; Perrone, Sergi Roberto (Da Cunha 66), Caqueret (Douvikas 53), Nico Paz (Vojvoda 82), Baturina; Addai (Jesus Rodriguez 66).
Coach: Fabregas
Referee: Manganiello (Pinerolo).
Booked: Ramon, Sergi Roberto, Elmas.
