Conte and Fabregas: from Chelsea glory to Coppa Italia showdown
Antonio Conte’s Napoli and Cesc Fabregas’ Como will be looking to earn a place in the Coppa Italia semifinals tonight, reuniting for the fourth time on the sidelines after winning titles with Chelsea.
Napoli and Como meet at the Stadio Maradona tonight in a Coppa Italia quarter-final showdown.
Napoli have already been eliminated from the Champions League, so they only have Serie A and Coppa Italia left to play for, even if they sit third in the league standings, and the gap from leaders Inter is now nine points.
Como, on the other hand, sit 6th in Serie A, just five points below a ChampionsLeague spot, with a game in hand.
Fabregas’ side, in fact, didn’t play this past weekend as their away game against Milan at San Siro was postponed due to the stadium being occupied by the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics.
Como’s last competitive match was on February 1, while Napoli beat Genoa 3-2 on Saturday, but saw their midfielder, Scott McTominay, suffer a minor injury. The Scotland international is part of a big group of Napoli players unavailable for tonight’s Coppa Italia fixture.
The winner will go on to face Inter in the semifinals.
Fabregas and Conte already met three times as coaches. Conte won the first match in October 2024, but the Spaniard is unbeaten in the last two, having grabbed a home 2-1 win in February 2025 and an away 0-0 draw at the Maradona this past November.
Fabregas played under Conte at Chelsea, scoring ten goals and providing 22 assists in 86 appearances between 2016 and 2018.
During their time at Stamford Bridge, Conte and Fabregas won a Premier League title (2016-17) and an FA Cup (2017-18).