The eternal Hernan Crespo has struck again, ending Fiorentina’s Coppa Italia run. While the Coppa Italia isn’t too interesting in the early stages, I really do enjoy it when it reaches the round of eight, like it has now. Maybe it’s due to the different mentality teams have when they play knockout football, and it occasionally produces spectacular last-minute goals.

Parma hosted Fiorentina in the round of eight of the Coppa Italia, and the match dragged deep into extra time with both sides creating chances, but Fiorentina having more. Fiorentina’s substitute Santana came on in the first half of extra time, and just six minutes from the end of extra time he produced a long-range goal. All of the Fiorentina team celebrated wildly, with Santana taking his shirt off, thinking that he had sealed Fiorentina a spot in the quarter-finals of the Coppa Italia.

But a minute later, the eternal Hernan Crespo got on the end of Lucarelli’s header to volley right at the Fiorentina keeper Avramov. While it should’ve been a fairly simple save, Avramov let Crespo’s solid volley spill into the back of his net. After the late equalizer, Crespo popped up again just two minutes later with the winner. Avramov parried a shot, and Crespo’s predatory instincts took over as he rushed to tap the ball into the goal to make it 2-1.

So much emotion in just one match, hopefully the other round of eight Coppa Italia matches will be just as exciting. The next ones taking place are Inter – Genoa and Palermo – Chievo on the 11th of January. The day after Juventus will face Catania, and then on the 17th of January Napoli will face Bologna. Then on the 18th we have some very exciting matches, with Roma facing Lazio and Sampdoria facing Udinese. And the final match of the round of eight will be played on the 19th of January between AC Milan and Bari.

Plenty of exciting match-ups in the Coppa Italia, what are your thoughts regarding the competition? And what are your thoughts of Crespo’s magnificent double which puts Fiorentina out of the tournament? Comment below!