Serie A champions Napoli narrowly secured their place in the Coppa Italia quarter-finals on Wednesday, defeating Cagliari 9-8 on penalties after a 1-1 draw at the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona.

Lorenzo Lucca had given the hosts the lead in the 28th minute, only for Sebastiano Esposito to equalize for the visitors in the second half. Following Italian Cup rules, the tie went straight to penalties after 90 minutes.

Cagliari’s Mattia Felici became the first to miss, with his fourth spot-kick crashing off the crossbar. Napoli’s David Neres then failed to convert his attempt, with goalkeeper Elia Caprile making a straightforward save.

Napoli keeper Vanja Milinkovic-Savic finally made a decisive stop on the tenth penalty, denying Zito Luvumbo, before Alessandro Buongiorno converted the winning kick to send Napoli through.

In the quarter-finals, Napoli will face the winners of the Como vs. Fiorentina tie, scheduled for the end of January.

Elsewhere, Atalanta cruised to a 4-0 home win over Genoa, while Inter Milan dismantled Serie B side Venezia 5-1 at the San Siro, with French forward Marcus Thuram scoring twice for Cristian Chivu’s side.

The Coppa Italia round of 16 continues on Thursday, with defending champions Bologna set to host Parma.