The Italian Cup or Coppa Italia 2021–22 cup, which recently changed names to Coppa Italia Frecciarossa thanks to changes in sponsorship from the second round, is the 75th Italian football national cup edition.

The cup is a knockout competition held annually in Italian football. The Coppa Italia was for a long time organized by the FIGC until the 2009–10 regular season and afterward the Lega Serie A.

Coppa Italia Frecciarossa 2021/22 – Round of 16 Outlook

Juventus are the current defending champions of the competition, and their odds of winning the trophy are 9/2.

It is also important to note that there are now 44 clubs, a reduction from 78 in the previous seasons. The 2021/22 round of 16 matches line up for has already been completed.

It will begin on 12th January 2022 with a big faceoff between Atlanta and Venezia and a hot game between Napoli and Fiorentina on the same day.

The next day AC Milan face off with Genoa. The lineup continues on 18th January 2022 with two hot matches scheduled for the day, i.e., Juventus vs. Sampdoria and Lazio vs. Udinese.

On the 19th January 2022, there are two big matches between Internazionale (Inter Milan) vs.Empoli and Sassuolo vs. Cagliari. The round of 16 comes to an end on 20th January 2022 with a match between Roma and Lecce.

Inter Milan Standings

The odds of Inter Milan winning the coveted trophy stands at 4/1. Inter beat Hellas Verona in the last 32 and are scheduled to face Empoli on the 19th January 2022.

Roma is currently top seeds on Inter’s side of the draw, with the two teams likely to meet in the quarter-finals. Going by history, the team could be on its way to winning its 8th Coppa Italia, and the topic is already hot on sports forum and other major channels.

The team currently has 31 domestic trophies, including 5 Supercoppa Italiana titles, 7 Coppa Italia, and 19 Serie A titles. Inter Milan has also won two Intercontinental Cups, three UEFA Cups/Europa League’s, three European Cups/Champions League’s and one FIFA Club World Cup.

Brief History Of The Italian Cup

The Italian championship cup was first introduced in Italy back in 1921. However, the competition was divided into two groups thanks to different teams participating in the championship.

The two rivalry groups were the FIGC championship (Italian Football Federation) and the CCI Championship (Italian Football Confederation).

The tournament took its usual course as the championships were not organized between the two divisions; hence they could not manage the dates.

The first-ever edition of the Italian cup was won by F.C Vado back in 1922. The second edition of the competition got canceled during the round of 32 despite being scheduled for the 1926–27 season.

The third edition of the contest came in late as it was held later in 1935–36. Come 1942–43 season, the World War happened, disrupting all sporting activities.

This led to a late resumption in 1958, from where the competition was held seasonally or annually with no disruption.

The club with the most winnings in the Coppa Italia is Juventus, boasting fourteen wins. Roma is the runner up having secured nine wins since the competition’s inception.

Juventus has also made it to twenty finals, with Roma making seventeen. The ultimate winner of the cup wears an Italian Coccarda and can be branded on military aircraft.

Next year, the titleholder also has an automatic qualification to the Super Coppa Italiana and the UEFA Europa League.

Format Of The Italian Cup

The Coppa Italia is a knockout tournament competition that has pre-made tournament pairings. This means that the whole competition’s draw is made before the first kick of the ball.

A tie is played as a single leg except for a two-legged semifinal stage. Extra time is played every time a match is drawn. A penalty shoot-out is also contested if the teams still draw after the extra time, i.e., after 120 minutes.

The winning team is typically presented with a trophy. It also gets a direct qualification to the UEFA Cup, which recently changed to the UEFA Europa League.

Suppose the winners have already qualified to the UEFA Champions League through Serie A, then place goes to the runners-up in the league table.

The competition has a total of seven rounds. It usually commences in August with the preliminary round followed by a contest by the eight lowest ranked clubs.

Serie B clubs join in the first round alongside Serie As 12 lowest-ranked teams based on the previous league seasons’ positions before August.

However, clubs participating in the European competitions are exempted from participating in the first round. The competition continues with the eight remaining teams in the Serie A joining in January for the third round, where only 16 teams remain.

In the round of 16, the quarter-finals and the semifinal first leg are consecutively played from here. The semifinal’s second leg is then played later in April, followed by the finals in May.

The 2007–08 edition of the Coppa Italia saw an elimination of the two-legged final; hence only a single match is played nowadays in Rome, Stadio Olimpico.