Coppa Italia Previews: Juventus aim for third double, Cesena have a giant to slay | Mark Neale
The stand out tie is a repeat of last season’s final as Juventus and AC Milan meet, not to mention the third instalment of this rivalry this season, the Rossoneri coming away with a 1-0 win in Serie A play and the Italian Super Cup trophy, earned on penalties in Qatar after a thrilling final.
With 16 Coppa wins between them and Juventus looking for a third Coppa win in a row, this game certainly grabs the attention.
As Juventus continue their quest to single-handedly break every domestic record possible, this game will by a strong test of character for an unprecedented third Coppa win, and ultimately a third double. Revenge for the Supercoppa loss in December will be extra motivation for the Bianconeri.
AC Milan are looking for their first Coppa since 2003, a comeback win against Torino in the last round means in order to progress they must dispatch both Turin sides in their quest for silverware. The Milan squad is not the biggest so Montella will have to use his players carefully as they also look to gain qualification to the champion’s league.
Another all-Serie A heavyweight clash will get underway next week as Inter face Lazio, both sides throwing away two goal leads but coming back to win in the last round.
Inter under Stefano Pioli have been a revelation, the tactician will be hoping to continue his teams fine form as he faces his former employers.
The same could be said for Lazio under Simone Inzaghi, the former Piacenza striker taking over from Pioli last April. This season the Biancocelesti are pushing for a return to the Champions League, but will need to do better than the 3-0 defeat they suffered at the hands of Inter last month to reach the Coppa semi finals.
The only exception to the Serie A dominance are Cesena, the lowest ranked team left in the competition. That's pretty much where the good news ends, as the Serie B side face Roma after a great comeback win over Serie A side Sassuolo.
The Cavallucci Marini are struggling for survival in Serie B, but will be hoping their Cup exploits can kick their season on and stave off a return to Lega Pro.
Roma will see this as a golden opportunity to progress to the semi finals.
Roma lie second in Serie A, and also have Europa league commitments, so this game could be seen as an opportunity to rotate the squad.
But they must be mindful not to follow the path of Sassuolo in the last round, but with the ease in which they dispatched Sampdoria it is clear they are taking this competition seriously.
The ties are played between tonight and February 1st.
You can read Mark's entertaining musings (especially in-game!) on Twitter at @neale_mark