Welcome back to Fiorentina. After a somewhat quiet January transfer window, my trusty band of brothers is ready to fight for Champions League qualification. Our February schedule looks relatively kind, so there’s no reason why we shouldn’t cling onto our top-four position.
In case you missed what happened in January, you can revisit Part 7 here. If you are a certain Uruguayan left-back who doesn’t know the meaning of the phrase “play it cool”, I would suggest you don’t.
SQUAD UPDATE
Just before most of the European transfer windows closed, Lyon audaciously tried to prise our captain Germán Pezzella from our grasp. I stood my ground, and after rejecting the Ligue 1’s side final bid, Pezzella’s agent suggested that we offer his client a new contract. Talks went surprisingly smoothly, and within days, we’d secured the defender’s services until at least 2023.
A few months ago, Pezzella became our second ‘Team Leader’, along with Federico Chiesa. Those two men are inspirations at opposite ends of the pitch, and it’s vital we keep them happy and settled in order to bring success back to the Artemio Franchi.
It’s also worth noting that Germán now has a ‘Close’ relationship with me, which means I am amongst his favoured personnel. The same applies to goalkeeper Alban Lafont and midfielder Jordan Veretout. Indeed, I seem to get along well with most of my players, except maybe Federico Ceccherini and Kevin Mirallas. You can’t please everyone, I guess.
Before I move on, a quick word on a couple of Primavera prospects who could be seeing more first-team action sooner or later.
Defensive midfielder Abdou Diakhaté has consistently been one of our best performers in the Under-20s team. The 20-year-old from Senegal also made his Serie A debut at Chievo in September. I had planned to loan Diakhaté out in January, but the only clubs that wanted him were in Serie C (well below his station). Instead, I promoted him to the senior squad and intended to give him some gametime from the bench.
Serbian teenager Dusan Vlahovic was also in line for a promotion, and he perhaps would’ve made his league bow already had it not been for injury. Though most suited to being a target man, Vlahovic could put pressure on opposition defences and was in line to replace Cyril Théréau as understudy to Giovanni Simeone.
Simeone had attracted offers from Schalke 04 and Leicester in January, with the latter bidding as much as €45million before they realised I had no intention of selling. Not least because setting Gio go now would’ve left us with Théréau as our only senior striker – and the 35-year-old Frenchman was firing more blanks than the Territorials.
UDINESE vs FIORENTINA (Serie A, Match 22)
Udinese went into this match hovering around mid-table, but after giving us a stern test at the Franchi earlier this season, I expected another tough battle. I wasn’t wrong, as the Zebrette gave Lafont plenty of work to do early on at the Dacia Arena.
Udinese went 1-0 up in the 20th minute, thanks to an incredible solo run from Rodrigo De Paul. The Argentine forward intercepted Cristiano Biraghi’s cross in the hosts’ penalty area and then dribbled past a couple of Viola challenges en route to our byline. Once there, he whipped in an excellent left-footed cross that was nodded home by Garfield’s favourite footballer – Kevin Lasagna.
We were making a meal of things, but Edimilson Fernandes set us to rights nine minutes later. The Swiss starlet chested a throw-in from Kevin Diks and then crossed to Simeone, who floated in his 50th career league goal to level the scores.
Marko Pjaca and Marco Benassi bruised their ankles late in the first half and were substituted before the second. Pjaca’s replacement Mirallas an impact two minutes after the resumption, jinking from our half to the edge of Udinese’s penalty arc. Once there, he weighted a fabulous through-ball to Simeone, who celebrated his first brace of the season!
We were now 2-1 up… but I hadn’t counted on an unlikely hero turning the match around for Udinese. Veteran Swiss destroyer Valon Behrami had scored about five league goals in the past decade. When he unleashed a piledriver from fellow midfielder Rolando Mandragora’s square ball in the 66th minute, though, Lafont could only watch as it flew into his top-right corner.
Behrami continued his hot streak nine minutes from time to consign us to back-to-back defeats. Lasagna’s cut-back from the middle of our area was drilled low past Lafont, and it was 3-2 to Udinese. Apparently, goals came like London buses for the former West Ham man!
To quote Kevin Lasagna’s number 1 fan… I hate Mondays (even though I’m publishing this post on a Tuesday, and this match was played on a Sunday, both in real-life and in-game). Maybe I should write a song about that…
That was a disastrous defeat, especially as other results went against us. Lazio built a seven-point lead on us by beating Torino 3-1 to stay top. Napoli kept the pressure on them with a 4-2 win over Genoa, though Juventus made slightly harder work of Chievo.
Milan recorded a 3-1 win over Atalanta to go level on points with us, though we remained ahead of the Giallorossi on goal difference. However, Inter’s 1-0 victory of Frosinone saw them push us out of the Champions League places for the first time since September. #FullerOut
FIORENTINA vs SPAL (Serie A, Match 23)
This had not been the best of seasons for SPAL. Rooted to the bottom of Serie A since November, the Biancazzurri had hoped that a new manager in the new year would give them renewed confidence.
SPAL turned to a certain Premier League title-winning tinkerman – Claudio Ranieri. The Leicester legend only took one point from his first three games (at home to Bologna), and he was unlikely to take another at the Franchi. Or so most of us thought.
A professional pragmatist such as Ranieri was always likely to make things difficult for our attackers. We couldn’t make any inroads into SPAL’s area during the first half, with our only shots on targets being a couple of long-range Mirallas free-kicks. Vanja Milinkovic-Savic caught them both.
I tried a few different approaches to try and break the visitors, with no avail. Playing wider and more direct didn’t help, so with about 15 minutes to go before we faced a humiliating 0-0 draw, I played my final cards. Fernandes and Valentin Eysseric came off the bench as we went very narrow.
I also kept Simeone on, even though he was having another bad day. Patience paid off six minutes from time, when SPAL’s Filippo Costa miscued a headed clearance from Benassi’s long ball into our box. Gio was on it like a flash, and his lucky 13th goal of the season broke the deadlock.
The away team lost all their belief after Costa’s error, and we piled on the misery in extra-time. Victory was wrapped up when Eysseric stroked Pjaca’s through-ball into the far corner. Then, just for good measure, Pjaca set up a powerfully-struck third goal from Fernandes.
It wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows at full-time, though. Simeone had pulled his knee ligaments in a late collision with SPAL midfielder Jasmin Kurtic, and thus we would be deprived of our top scorer for at least the next two matches.
The tie of the round was played out in Turin, where João Cancelo put Juventus 3-2 up on Napoli with just six minutes remaining. However, an 86th-minute equaliser from Fabián was followed by Simone Verdi’s injury-time winner, which stunned the champions and secured Napoli their fourth straight win.
The Partenopei’s late heroics weren’t enough to take them to the summit, where Lazio remained with a narrow win over Milan. Inter’s 2-0 win over Chievo denied us the opportunity to take 4th place back from them.
FROSINONE vs FIORENTINA (Serie A, Match 24)
As one defender returned to fitness before our trip to Frosinone, another was laid low. Captain Pezzella stayed at home with a cold, so Vítor Hugo – now back from his ankle injury – filled in for him as Nikola Milenkovic‘s partner.
Frosinone were in 18th place, and they were also the lowest scorers in Serie A. After withstanding some early Fiorentina attacks, the Canarini left us feeling very yellow by scoring from their first shot on goal after 22 minutes. It was a smartly-taken low effort from Ghana midfielder Raman Chibsah on the edge of our area that caught Lafont by surprise.
We had a couple of promising equalising attempts before half-time, but Pjaca and Milenkovic were each narrowly off target. When I tried to fire the players up with some stern words at half-time, the latter took them rather too literally.
In the 52nd minute, shortly after Frosinone lost wing-back Francesco Zampano to a calf injury, we lost Milenkovic to an act of utter stupidity. As Canarini striker Andrea Pinamonti held the ball up on a halfway line, a frustrated Milenkovic attempted to hack him down with both feet. Pinamonti got out of the way just in time, but that didn’t deter the referee from showing our Serbian stopper the red card!
Then, as if to make matters worse, Biraghi twisted his knee a few minutes later. We now had a couple of substitutes in our backline, but Frosinone were now focussing on protecting their lead rather than extending it. They would hang onto it quite comfortably, as a series of pitiful long-range shots was all we could muster before full-time.
If you want to qualify for the Champions League, you shouldn’t go losing matches like these. You definitely shouldn’t go studs-in on an opponent when your team’s struggling to fight back in one of those games. It was time for me to lay down the law on Milenkovic.
Nikola also copped a one-match ban for his troubles. Considering his recent dip in form, I might keep him out of the starting line-up for a while longer.
Inexplicably, most of the other big guns slipped up as well. Lazio’s goalless draw at Sassuolo actually saw them move two points clear at the top. That was because a 96th-minute penalty from Inter’s Keita Baldé condemned Napoli to a 1-0 defeat in an aggressive match.
Milan’s slump continued at home against Cagliari, while Roma fell further adrift upon losing by the same 1-0 scoreline to a revitalised Sampdoria. It was, though, a good week for 3rd-placed Juventus, who recovered from an early setback at Genoa to win 3-1. The Bianconeri had now scored at least twice in 11 successive league matches, refuelling belief in an eighth consecutive scudetto. Urgh.
FIORENTINA vs CHIEVO (Serie A, Match 25)
A week on from our pathetic defeat at Frosinone, we faced an opponent that we were rather less concerned about. When Chievo boss Giampiero Ventura spoke about Fiorentina earlier in the season, he predicted that we would struggle. This time around, the 71-year-old spoke gushingly about our possession game and predicted that he team would be in for a long match.
The first half certainly felt long to me. Chievo might’ve been 14th in the table, but I hadn’t expected them to be quite as pensive as they were. They kept things tight at the back and restricted our close-range chances. Meanwhile, an injury to Manuel Pucciarelli greatly reduced their threat at the other end.
It was proving to be a frustrating debut for our debutant striker Dusan Vlahovic. Having been booked as early as the fourth minute for a foul on defender Luca Rossettini, the 19-year-old Serbian only mustered a single shot on goal. His header from a cross by left-back Biraghi skimmed the bar.
As for our right-back, Gilberto strained his calf four minutes from half-time. The Brazilian bravely played on, even managing to float an excellent cross onto the head of Fernandes just before the break. From virtually the last attack of the half, Edi had sent us into the lead!
We moved further ahead seven minutes into the second half, producing some of the flowing football Ventura had been waxing lyrical about. I counted 19 consecutive passes from Biraghi’s tackle on Emanuele Giaccherini to his low centre across the Chievo box, which Chiesa slotted into the net from a tight angle! Pep Guardiola, eat your heart out!
Chiesa was still not fully fit following a calf injury, so I wisely subbed him midway through the half. We only occasionally looked like scoring a third goal thereafter, with Diakhaté coming closest to getting a maiden senior strike in the latter stages.
Our defence was caught napping five minutes from time, when a long ball over the top found Chievo’s substitute striker Mariusz Stepinski. Fortunately, the Poland international’s shot also went over the top, and we came away with another comfortable home win.
Lazio conceded a last-minute equaliser against Udinese, which meant Inter cut their lead down to a single point upon defeating Genoa 4-2. The Nerazzurri climbed to 2nd above Napoli, who were locked in a stalemate with Bologna.
After a tense first half against Roma, Juventus ran riot in the second, bagging four goals without reply to strengthen their grip on the Champions League places. Roma had lost substantial ground on us, as had Milan, who’d actually done quite well to claw back a point after Empoli had taken an early 2-0 lead.
Our Champions League hopes are flagging a bit, though ‘second-half syndrome’ hasn’t yet caught us in its vice-like grip. We should now finish 7th at worst, which will indeed be enough to get into the Europa League, because Lazio and Roma will contest the Coppa Italia Final. Even so, we must look to stay as high as possible and make sure we don’t have to go through those poxy qualifiers.
Be sure to join me again in Part 9, where a mad March schedule includes crunch games with Juventus and Inter. In the meantime, I’m going to check that Milenkovic has been attending his anger management classes.
“Forza viola!”
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