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Fan Shot Before Fiorentina vs. Napoli Italian Cup Final
May 3, 2014
Updates from Sunday, May 4
Gabriele Marcoti of the Times provides a synopsis of the press conference held by Rome police discussing yesterday's shooting:
Sky Sport Italia reports Roma fans now fear traveling to other matches:
Original Text
Chaos ensued prior to the Italian Cup Final between Napoli and Fiorentina Saturday in Rome, Italy as at least two people were reportedly shot.
According to Rob Harris of the Associated Press, a fan and a police officer were shot, and the fan is currently in critical condition:
Per Football Italia on Twitter, four injuries occurred during the incident:
The police later updated the status of the injured fans (via Laure James of Sky Sports)
As seen in this photo, courtesy of Terrace Life on Twitter, the reported shooting made for a wild scene outside of Stadio Olimpico:
Jerrad Peters of Bleacher Report reports that the unrest and violence have spilled over into the stadium:
Jorge Arango of the Telegraph reports that the violence was between Napoli and Roma fans, not Napoli and Fiorentina fans:
It is unclear if club affiliation had anything to do with the dangerous situation that occurred, but there is no question that tensions were heightened.
Napoli and Fiorentina players will now be faced with the difficult task of playing after such a disturbing incident. Napoli are favored due to their third-place standing in the league, but Fiorentina coach Vincenzo Montella made it clear heading into the match that he wanted to finish the season on a high note, per Sky Sports.
"We want to win the Coppa Italia and finish fourth in the league," Montella said. "It has been a difficult season due to injuries and my team has done an extraordinary job."
With such a significant distraction to worry about, Montella will certainly have his work cut out for him.
Napoli and Fiorentina players have now been indirectly shouldered with the burden of taking people's minds off what happened outside the stadium.
Perhaps the two teams will be able to provide a momentary distraction, but there is no question that those who were present for the alleged shooting have bigger things to worry about.
Huge football matches are always ripe for these kinds of dangerous occurrences, but hopefully, this is an outlier rather than a trend.
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