Alessandria's Coppa Italia fairy tale against Milan

Alessandria are currently playing at Lega Pro A, part of the third tier of Italian football. The Greys were doing well in the third division, with 35 points from 19 matches. The most impressive thing about the club, however, was that Alessandria had reached the semi-finals of the Coppa Italia and were still in the competition. The third-division side still had a chance of reaching the final, even though they lost the first leg of the semi-final 0-1 to Milan.
So how did Alessandria get to the semi-finals? The Greys entered the Coppa Italia in the very first round, where they faced the Serie D side Alto Vicentino from the fifth tier. Alessandria had no trouble, beating the lower-division team 2-0. Manuel Fischnaller, 24, opened the scoring in the 3rd minute, and Loviso doubled the lead in the 7th.
Just a week later, Alessandria visited Pro Vercelli of Serie B in the second round. That was the first real test for Angelo Gregucci’s side. Once again Fischnaller found the net for The Greys in the first half. Ardizzone equalised for Pro Vercelli in the 36th minute, but Mezavilla scored for Alessandria 30 minutes before the final whistle.
Alessandria then beat Juve Stabia 1-0 at home, with Loviso scoring the only goal of the game. That was the easiest part of the task for The Greys. In the fourth round they had to visit Serie A side Palermo. Nearly everyone believed Alessandria could not win, but coach Gregucci thought otherwise. Loviso converted a penalty early in the game to give Alessandria the lead, and goals from Marconi and Nicco then stunned Palermo at the Stadio Renzo Barbera.
The Greys travelled to Genoa in the last 16 of the cup. The Serie A side were fortunate to take the game to extra time, equalising in the last seconds of normal time. In the 114th minute, however, substitute Bocalon, a former Inter player, found the net after a sensational one-two. An even more dramatic match followed in the quarter-final away at Spezia. The hosts took the lead in the 20th minute, and Bocalon once again came off the bench to help his teammates. He entered the field in the 70th minute and scored 13 minutes later, then did it again in the very last seconds of the match.
In the first leg of the semi-final Alessandria lost 0-1 to Milan at home. The Greys could easily have lost by more, but they still had a chance of reaching the final. If Milan underestimated them, Alessandria were capable of knocking out The Rossoneri.

How the semi-final ended

The first leg, on 26 January 2016, was not played at Alessandria’s small Stadio Giuseppe Moccagatta but at the Stadio Olimpico in Turin, where 20,605 spectators watched Mario Balotelli score the only goal from the penalty spot in the 43rd minute. The return leg at San Siro on 1 March 2016 showed the gap between the two sides. Jérémy Ménez scored twice, Alessio Romagnoli did the same and Balotelli added a fifth a minute from time as Milan won 5-0 and went through 6-0 on aggregate.

The run had still been historic. By beating Genoa, Alessandria became the first third-tier club to reach the Coppa Italia quarter-finals since Bari in 1983-84, and the win at Spezia took them one round further. Milan’s reward was a final against Juventus at the Stadio Olimpico in Rome on 21 May 2016, which Juventus won 1-0 after extra time with a goal from Álvaro Morata in the 110th minute. Juventus had reached that final by beating Inter on penalties after the two sides finished 3-3 on aggregate.

The Greys and their history

Founded in 1912, Alessandria are known in Italy as the Greys, and also as the Bear. The club spent 13 seasons in Serie A between 1929 and 1960, the last of them in 1959-60, and reached a Coppa Italia final in 1936, losing 5-1 to Torino in a match played in Genoa. Five years after the cup run, the club finally climbed out of the third tier, beating Padova 5-4 on penalties in the 2020-21 promotion play-off final to return to Serie B for the first time since 1975.