Roma into Coppa semifinals

AS Roma beat 10-man Catania 1-0 to reach the Italian Cup semifinals on Tuesday.

About 15 minutes after Catania's Giuseppe Bellusci was sent off, Daniele De Rossi struck home in the 74th minute.

Roma will play the winner of Wednesday's quarterfinal between AC Milan and Udinese, on Feb. 3 and 10.

"We knew that Catania would give their all in defense and try to play on the counterattack," Roma coach Claudio Ranieri said. "We weren't too concerned with how we played tonight, we just wanted to reach the semifinals."

Both sides appeared tired in the first half and struggled to find much continuity or rhythm.

John Arne Riise went close with a powerful shot in the 37th that Catania goalkeeper Andrea Campagnolo failed to hold, but Christian Terlizzi beat Stefano Okaka to the loose ball.

De Rossi then shot narrowly wide having ran at the Catania defense in the 44th.

After the break Roma started the stronger and Jeremy Menez and Okaka went close.

In the 59th, Catania went down to 10 men when Bellusci pulled down Rodrigo Taddei on the edge of the area. Campagnolo stopped David Pizarro's shot from the free kick.

In the 72nd, Campagnolo again stopped Catania from going a goal down when he saved from Simone Perrotta.

Roma took the lead when Okaka broke down the right wing and cut the ball back on the edge of the area to De Rossi, who hit a low shot past Campagnolo.