Into the channels: 03/12/2014 (Part 1)

Empoli 2 - 0 Genoa

Genoa won the third Coppa Italia, in 1937. Their shirts bear their crest in the middle, and their sponsor hidden up in the top left corner. They are sponsored by biscuits, which makes sense, as their opening half an hour was crumby. Make what you will of Empoli being sponsored by Computer Gross.

Emptyoli

Tonight, they visited Empoli, who lie south of them both in maps of Italy and in the league table. Empoli are 13th, which is stable for them; Genoa are generally having a great season, up in 4th. One of the players lighting up this season is Maxime Lestienne. When I watched Racing beat River Plate in a top-of-the-table clash in Argentina a week ago, I spoke of my surprise to find former River attacking midfielder Manuel Lanzini crop up in the UAE, rather than in Europe. Gabriele Marcotti agreed with my sentiments in the Wall Street Journal a few days ago. Well, last year In Bed with Maradona selected Lestienne as one of their players to watch in 2014. And in reading their recap of his year, which saw a move to Qatar follow a loan back to Italy, I can't help but think of Lanzini once more. Lanzini is doing well with Al-Ahli, but will need to do really well to get a move to a big European side, and will be lucky if he emulates recent River exports Lamela and Perreyra, never mind Messi. Lestienne, similarly, will need to make the most of his opportunities at Genoa to remain if he is to compete for a spot in the Belgium squad, especially when there are so many other talented young players vying for his position in the national team. Although it wasn't Januzaj or De Bruyne who got him suspended from the youth team...

The referee intercepts a Genoa attack in the first half

An arm intercepts a Genoa attack in the second half

The Coppa Italia is a strange competition, in which the bottom 12 teams from last season's Serie A join in the Third Round, and the top 8 join in the Fifth, in January. This is the Fourth Round. In England's FA Cup, you have 44 teams from the top two tiers entering at the Third Round, joining the 20 surviving teams from the lower tiers, who then potentially have 6 rounds remaining in which to play; Italian sides have only 4. This season's FA Cup will involve 736 teams, and teams from the 7th and 8th levels of English football remain in at the Second Round, only a win away from facing the country's elite sides. Meanwhile, in the Coppa Italia, only 6 teams outside of the top two levels made the Third Round, where the plum draw was Lazio; and none of them made it through to the Fourth. No third tier teams in the competition come by December, and two successive rounds of 16, kind of sum up why this competition lacks glamour.

Diego Laxalt

Diego Laxalt, a product of Uruguayans Defensor Sporting who is on loan from Inter, gave Empoli a 5th minute lead. He lashed his shot at the Genoa keeper, who wasn't able to do any better than slightly deflect it into his net. Empoli looked by far the more confident side for the duration of the first half.

Genoa threw on Chilean forward Mauricio Pinilla after 54 minutes, and Alessandro Matri 10 minutes later. Both are 30 years old, both are just over 6 foot tall, both joined Genoa this year, and both have a handful of goals. Former Hearts striker Pinilla is slightly more intriguing: like Lestienne, he also missed out international selection for a period early on in his career because of an incident involving a woman and a hotel, but he was brought back into the fold, and both hit the bar and missed a penalty as Chile lost to Brazil in the World Cup this summer. Lestienne was also coming into the game, trying to cut in from the left wing as much as possible.

But what Genoa's play lacked was intensity. And in the pace of Laxalt on the left, and the strength of Levan Mchedlidze up front, Empoli looked far more capable of doing some damage in the second half. It didn't help that any time they broke forward, Genoa's midfield didn't really seem that bothered about tracking back. I suppose the Coppa Italia is even less glamourous when you're soaking wet and losing to Empoli.

Mchedlidze backheels a corner into the corner of the goal

He hasn't scored a lot of goals since leaving Georgia, and certainly not many like that

After Mchedlidze did that, Genoa threw Venezuela co-captain Tomás Rincón on. Laxalt responded by flicking the ball past two Genoa defenders, charging through them like Pelé did for Santos against Benfica in 1962, and shooting past a third. It would have been the goal of the game, had not the Genoa keeper got down to block it. (That Pelé comparison may be excessive, but if you haven't seen the way he played in that game - which BBC Sport's South America correspondent Tim Vickery described on this week's World Football Phone-In as making him seem like someone from "a different species" - you can get an idea from YouTube.)

Laxalt made himself available in the centre of midfield for the rest of the game, as Empoli saw the game out, only really creating one clear chance. Which Lestienne miscued, firing way over.

Lestienne: should have done better

L'Hospitalet 0 - 3 Atletico Madrid

Genoa are sponsored by biscuits, and Atletico Madrid are sponsored by Azerbaijan. Last time the advertising boards for Land of Fire lost at this stage of the Copa del Rey (to Albacete in 2011), they replaced their manager with Diego Simeone. Simeone won Atleti's 10th title last season. Perhaps a defeat to a third division side in L'Hospitalet de Llobregat, a Catalan municipality that is one of the most densely populated cities in Europe. Their 6,740 seater ground was not quite full for the visit of Atleti, in the first leg of the round of 32, but it was equipped with an artificial pitch.

Former Roma, Fiorentina and Torino winger Alessio Cerci strikes Atleti's best chance at the home keeper after 11 minutes

Raul Jimenez heads against the bar on 18 minutes

After 10 minutes, Atleti found their rhythm, dominating, and attacking mainly through Cerci on the right, and from Gabi's set pieces.

L'Hospitalet relieve some pressure with a 27th minute free-kick

Then Jose Angel Bueno falls over inside the area, after tripping himself up

Cerci bends Atleti's next shot wide, after a fairly even 10 minutes

I talked about the differences between the Coppa Italia and FA Cup above. Italy's competition seems devised to keep the smaller clubs away from the top ones; the Spanish king's cup gives sides from the third and fourth levels the opportunity to play against those competing in European competitions, as the lowest-ranked teams get drawn against the teams who finished highest the previous season. But with two-legged fixtures, upsets are rarer than they in England. So it's like a middle ground, then: the teams from the lower leagues get to play a couple of huge fixtures, but the path to the latter stages is still quite smooth for those enjoying life at the top of the pyramid.

Cristian Rodriguez put the last chance of the half over the bar, and L'Hospitalet got to go in at half-time having not conceded (and having retained 52% of possession!) against the team that almost won the Champions League last season. Atleti got to go in and face the wrath of Simeone.

I wondered whether Rodriguez would re-emerge after the break, and, if he did, what he would smell like:

Having received the nickname Cebolla (onion) from his Peñarol days, from his father,^[1] and also because he smelled nicely when he sweat,^[2] he is well known for his speed and technical ability.

France international forward Antoine Griezmann came on at half-time. He floated a cross in towards Cerci after two minutes of play in the second period, and hit the crossbar.

L'Hospitalet attack! Jan Oblak collects

Atleti came out a bit more purposeful, and forced two goal-line clearances from set pieces in quick succession. Away set pieces were looking likely to produce a goal, though nothing like the 9 scored by Real the night before.

L'Hospitalet's captain, left-back Valentin, drags a shot wide...

Just as I was about to point out that Aston Villa had played far worse than L'Hospitalet were doing at Crystal Palace yesterday and won, Griezmann flicked in a header to make it 1-0.

Griezmann wheels away

One nil down and with 20 minutes to play, L'Hospitalet turned to the local muezzin to inspire the home team, with what is known in Azerbaijan as the azan. Or it may have just been a dodgy megaphone.

Cerci was pulled back whilst running into the area with 10 minutes to go, and Gabi stepped up. Rolled from the spot by the captain.

2-0

3-0?

Atletico's third goal was chalked off, Cerci penalised for being offside, despite (as the shot above shows) being out of the goalkeeper's line of vision, and despite not touching the ball as it flew in. The home side looked rattled.

A point-blank save from Griezmann by second-choice L'Hospitalet keeper Oscar Sanchez means that, after this same set of Atleti players face Juventus in Europe, the return fixture at Vicente Calderon will still have something about it.

Well... until the Onion struck this shot, with the last kick of the game