Article snapshot taken from Wikipedia with creative commons attribution-sharealike license.
Give it a read and then ask your questions in the chat.
We can research this topic together.
The 2003–04 Coppa Italia was the 57th edition of the tournament. Lazio won the tournament for the 4th time in club history, winning the two-legged final over Juventus on a 4–2 aggregate score.
Seedings and format
In the 2003–04 Coppa Italia there were a total of 48 teams competing: all 18 clubs from Serie A, 23 of the 24 clubs in Serie B, and 7 clubs from Serie C. The only Serie B club not to feature in the competition was ACF Fiorentina, as they had only later been reassigned to Serie B based on sporting merit following the disbarment of Cosenza. The clubs from Serie C included the 4 runners-up from the 2002–03 Serie C promotion playoffs along with the two finalists from the 2002–03 Serie C Coppa Italia competition.
The format for pairings were:
Group Stage: one-leg fixtures
First round: The 32 non-seeded clubs were divided into 8 groups of 4 teams each. Each team played the other three from its group once and the top team from each group advanced to the second round.
Points were awarded as 3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, and 0 points for loss. In the event of a tie at the conclusion of this stage, the group goes to the team with the best goal difference in the match, otherwise the best overall goal difference.
Knockout Rounds: two-leg fixtures
Second round: Clubs 9–14 from Serie A and the top two clubs from Serie B were paired against the 8 advancing teams from the group stage.
Round of 16: Teams 1–8 from Serie A were paired against the 8 winners of the second round
Quarterfinals, Semifinals and Finals: Two-leg fixtures with pairings based upon bracket
Group stage
To protest against the enlargement of Serie B to 24 teams, many clubs chose to forfeit games in the group phase of this year's competition and many games were not played. All forfeiting teams were given a 3–0 defeat and deducted 1 point in the table for each game not played. Forfeiting teams are indicated in italics.
Italy
59', 80'
