The two coaches have met in just one previous competitive match: in Serie A 2009/10 Leonardo was coach of AC Milan when they beat Ballardini's Lazio side 1-2 away.

This will be the third time Leonardo has faced Genoa as a coach in competitive fixtures. The two previous games came in Serie A 2009/10 when the Brazilian coach was in charge of AC Milan, and on both occasions the home side won.

This is the sixth head-to-head between Ballardini and Inter. To date the Genoa coach has 1 win (2-1 with Lazio in the 2009 Italian Super Cup played in Beijing), 1 draw and 3 defeats. Ballardini's teams have conceded in every match they have played against Inter, letting in 8 goals in total.

The last time Genoa scored against Inter in a competitive fixture was on 13 January 2009, when they were beaten 3-1 after extra time at the San Siro in a Coppa Italia tie. The scorer of that goal was Rossi after 79 minutes. Since then, the remaining 41 minutes of that match plus 4 successive league games (Genoa 0-2 Inter in 2008/09; Genoa 0-5 Inter and Inter 0-0 Genoa in 2009/10; Genoa 0-1 Inter in 2010/11), Genoa have been unable to find a way past Inter's defence, making it 401 minutes since they last hit the net against us.

This is the seventh time the two sides have met in the Coppa Italia and Inter have won all six previous games, scoring 16 goals in the process. Today's match is a repeat of the Coppa Italia round-of-16 tie played two seasons ago: on 13 January 2009 Inter ran out 3-1 winners at home after extra time.

Inter have won their last 6 games in the Coppa Italia. Those wins came against Sampdoria (1-0 at home in 2008/09), Livorno (1-0 at home), Juventus (2-1 at home), Fiorentina (two 1-0 wins, home and away) and Roma (1-0 victory in last season's final - played at the stadio Olimpico but considered neutral turf by the Lega Calcio), with the last five of these matches all coming in 2009/10. The last time Inter failed to win a game in the competition was on 4 March 2009, when they lost 3-0 away to Sampdoria. The current run means the Nerazzurri have equalled their longest winning streak of 6 games in the competition, achieved on two other occasions: from July 1958 to June 1959 they beat Como (0-3 away), Mantova (0-7 away), Napoli (3-2 at home), Padova (2-3 away), Lazio (0-1 away) and Venezia (1-0 at home), while between May 2006 and January 2007 they saw off Roma (3-1 at home), Messina (0-1 away and 4-0 at home), Empoli (two 2-0 wins, home and then away) and Sampdoria (0-3 away).

Inter haven't lost a Coppa Italia game at the stadio Meazza since 12 December 2002, when Bari went away with 1-2 win in a round-of-16 return-leg game. Since then the Nerazzurri have been unbeaten in 24 home games in the competition, racking up 19 wins and 5 draws.

Genoa haven't drawn a Coppa Italia game since 29 August 2004, when they drew 3-3 at home against Torino. Since then they have had 8 wins and 6 defeats in the competition (including the 0-3 forfeit defeat against Catanzaro in 2005/06). Only once in their last 16 cup games have Genoa kept a clean sheet, which happened when they beat Fiorentina 1-0 at home on 23 August 2006. In the other 15 cup games in that period Genoa have conceded 27 goals.

Genoa have failed to muster a single goal in competitive fixtures since 5 December, when they took home a 1-3 victory from Lecce (Serie A). Rossi scored Genoa's third goal in that game after 90 minutes. Since then they have failed to score in 3 successive league fixtures: Napoli (0-1 home defeat), Lazio (0-0 at home) and Cesena (0-0 away), making it 270 minutes without a goal. In fact, their 3 goals in the win over Lecce was the only game in which they have scored in the last five. The last goal conceded by Genoa was on 11 December 2010 against Napoli at home (0-1), with Hamsik netting the only goal of the game, meaning that the Genoa goal hasn't been breached in 245 minutes of football.

MILAN - The Coppa Italia 2010/11 round-of-16 game between Inter and Genoa saw the Nerazzurri run out 3-2 winners this evening. And the Meazza faithful were witness to some red-hot finishing, with Eto'o's first-half double (15 and 43) putting Inter firmly in control of the game. After the restart, Ranocchia's foul on Rudolf allowed Kharja to pull one back from the spot. Then, just after Muntari had been replaced by Biabiany, Mariga rose to power in a header from Maicon's corner and restore Inter's two-goal cushion. Sculli scored a second for Genoa late on.

FIRST HALF - Inter's first Coppa Italia fixture of the season coincided with Andrea Ranocchia's first start in an Inter shirt, after Leonardo handed him his full debut against his old team, alongside Materazzi in central defence. The coach decided to freshen things up in other areas too, with Santon coming in at left-back and Mariga and Muntari in midfield. Genoa's four-man midfield had Kharja out on the right.

Rudolf tried to break through the Inter defence after just 4 minutes, but Maicon was on hand to cut out a return ball and clear. Five minutes later it was Ranocchia's turn to make a timely challenge, with Rudolf again in a dangerous position. However, it was Inter who opened the scoring on 15 minutes with a goal from the top drawer: Muntari's cross from the left was trapped by Eto'o, who ghosted between two defenders in a flash with some nifty footwork and finished clinically beneath Scarpi. It was the Cameroonian's 20th goal of the season and the striker is Inter's top scorer in every competition they have played in. A clever early ball by Cambiasso gave Eto'o a chance to make it 21 almost immediately, but this time Scarpi was able to push his curling shot behind (19 minutes). The game quietened down after that and little happened until the 42nd minute, when Boakye laid off for Kharja, but Ranocchia denied him the chance to equalise. Down the other end Muntari gave Scarpi a fright with a venomous effort that whistled just wide of the post but a minute later Eto'o did give his side a two-goal lead. And it was perhaps even better than his first strike: Maicon's powerful low cross from the right was controlled delightfully by the Cameroonian, whose first touch took him away from Moretti allowing him to fire in a half-volley as the spinning ball came down. After a minute's added time, the Nerazzurri went in at half time two goals to the good.

SECOND HALF - Genoa made a change during the break, with Mesto replacing Jelenic. On 51 minutes Veloso won the ball and set up Boakye, but his effort was kept out by an alert Castellazzi. It was the first of many saves Inter's No. 2 shot-stopper would make in the second half, though he could do nothing two minutes later after Ranocchia had fouled Rudolf - put through by Criscito's forward ball - just inside the box: Kharja made no mistake from the spot. Leonardo made his first change on 58 minutes, Muntari coming off to be replaced by Biabiany. The Ghanian picked up a yellow card for taking too long to leave the pitch, but Mariga didn't hang around seconds later when he rose well and twisted in the air to plant a lovely header into the back of the net for his first goal of the season and make it 3-1 to Inter. Ballardini promptly made a double substitution, bringing on Palacio and Sculli for Kharja and Rudolf and Inter made another change of their own in the 70th minute, when Eto'o left the pitch to applause and an affectionate hug from his coach, Obi coming on in his place. Genoa weren't giving up, though, and created several chances to score: Castellazzi was well placed after Mesto and Boakye combined (74) while the linesman's flag went up after Sculli was played in by a clever ball from Kucka. Another Genoa attack saw Criscito try to go it alone but Castellazzi was again equal to it at full stretch. Palacio then went close with another effort before Castellazzi bettered all his previous saves, pushing efforts from both Criscito (87) and Dainello (89) behind for a corner. However, he was powerless to prevent Sculli's header from Veloso's corner, which made the score 3-2 and set up a slightly nervy three minutes of injury time. Inter held on comfortably, though, and thus reach the quarter-finals, where they will travel to play the winners of Napoli v Bologna.

COPPA ITALIA, INTER-GENOA 3-2
Scorers: 15 and 43 Eto'o, 54 Kharja (pen), 59 Mariga, 91 Sculli.

Inter: 12 Castellazzi; 13 Maicon (88th for 24 Rivas), 15 Ranocchia, 23 Materazzi, 39 Santon; 4 Zanetti, 19 Cambiasso, 4 Mariga; 11 Muntari (58th for 88 Biabiany); 27 Pandev, 9 Eto'o (70th for 20 Obi).
Unused subs: 21 Orlandoni, 6 Lucio, 22 Milito, 40 Nwankwo.
Coach: Leonardo.

Genoa: 73 Scarpi; 18 Rafinha, 3 Dainelli, 24 Moretti, 4 Criscito; 29 Jelenic (46th for 20 Mesto), 33 Kucka, 42 Veloso, 11 Kharja (63rd for 8 Palacio); 25 Boakye, 17 Rudolf (62nd for 14 Sculli)
Unused subs: 88 Perin, 7 Ross, 36 Zuculini, 77 Milanetto.
Coach: Davide Ballardini

Referee: Nicola Pierpaoli (from Florence)
Yellow cards: 54 Ranocchia, 57 Muntari.
Added time: 1+3 minutes

starting lineups

substitutes