Pressure growing on Garcia as Roma crash out of Coppa Italia

Pressure is growing on Rudi Garcia after Roma crashed out of the Coppa Italia at the hands of Serie B side Spezia following a penalty shootout on Wednesday.

The 51-year-old had been hoping Roma would be able to end their six-game winless streak, but Spezia kept their cool from the spot, prevailing 4-2 to pile even more misery on Garcia.

Neither side managed to find the net during a dour 120 minutes, with Miralem Pjanic and Edin Dzeko subsequently missing from 12 yards to seal Roma's fate.

Victory sees Spezia progress to the last eight for only the third time in history, where they will face third-tier outfit Alessandria, who overcame Genoa on Tuesday. 

Garcia has received his fair share of criticism in recent weeks following Roma's poor run of form and a number of reports from Italy suggest they are already lining up potential replacements for the Frenchman.

The former Lille boss managed to guide Roma to the knockout stages of the Champions League after a 6-1 defeat at the hands of Barcelona on matchday five followed by a scoreless draw versus BATE.

The Stadio Olimpico side have dropped to fifth place in the Serie A table after four games without a win.