I have now come to the final month of my first season at Fiorentina. European football will be coming back to the Artemio Franchi in 2019/2020, but it remains to be seen whether we’ll play in the Champions League or the Europa League. These final four games of the Serie A campaign will decide that.
If you’re still to catch up on all the goings-on in April, click here to read through Part 10. (WARNING: Clicking on that link might greatly increase your Injury Risk.)
ONE IN… AND ONE OUT?
We start this chapter with the confirmation of a second new signing for next season. Whilst scouting for prospects in South America, Toninho Cruz came across this potential gem of an attacking midfielder:
Ladies and gentlemen, meet Nicolás Benedetti (who is not to be confused with the violin virtuoso Nicola Benedetti). He’s just turned 22, he’s been capped once by Colombia, and he’ll be costing us a mere €600,000 from his hometown club Deportivo Cali.
I’m always on the lookout for bargains, and Benedetti is so well-rounded for such a cheap player. He’s creative, he has very good technique, and his work rate and stamina fit the bill for a counter-pressing team. Given enough time to develop, we could have our very own James Rodríguez on our hands.
But as one South American plans his relocation to Florence, another is perhaps getting ready to pack his bags. As expected, Giovanni Simeone did not appreciate that I failed to offer him a new contract before his deadline, even though I simply could not do so (for reasons which I have already explained in Part 9).
I had the option to again promise Simeone another contract… but that would’ve made as much sense as promising to the World Health Organization that I’d find a cure for cancer within two years. Instead, I reluctantly accepted that I could not meet the Argentine striker’s demands and would let him go in the summer.
Being a professional (Perfectionists tend to have very high Professionalism), Gio said that he would get on with his game for now, and worry about a big-money transfer later. That was the very least I expected from him as we strived to secure a top-six placing.
CAGLIARI vs FIORENTINA (Serie A, Match 35)
To kick off the final month of the season, I journeyed with my team to Sardinia, which had been a surprisingly popular destination for my fellow Englishmen during the summer of 1990. These days, there was a sense of anxiety amongst the Cagliari-supporting locals, with the Rossoblu desperately battling to stay clear of the drop.
Though Fiorentina wasn’t blessed with any of Serie A’s top set-piece specialists, it was slightly annoying that we hadn’t been too prolific from corners this season. Indeed, none of our central defenders had scored throughout the campaign. That would all change during a mad five-minute spell midway through the first half.
It all kicked off in the 18th minute, when Federico Chiesa whipped a corner to the near post. Skipper Germán Pezzella was there to unleash a header that crashed in off the underside of the bar to end an undesirable record! Oh yeah, and it also put us 1-0 up.
Cagliari then resorted to tit-for-tat, winning a couple of corners within the next two minutes. Lafont kept out Leonardo Pavoletti’s attempt from the first set-piece by Diego Farias, but he would be outwitted by the other. On that occasion, Farias’ deep delivery found former Liverpool stopper Ragnar Klavan, who headed in a swift equaliser.
Then things became even more ridiculous in the 22nd minute. Chiesa sent another Viola corner to the near post, where Vítor Hugo popped up to break his duck! It was 2-1 to Fiorentina, with all three goals coming from central defenders!
Just before half-time, though, Gilberto proved that full-backs could make their mark as well. Lafont claimed a less impressive Farias corner and threw the ball long to our Brazilian right-back, who quickly humped the ball into space for Simeone to run onto. The Argentine marksman broke away and smashed in an emphatic shot to send us into the break leading 3-1.
Another Argentinian hoped to get on the scoresheet in the 53rd minute. Fortunately for us, Cagliari midfielder Lucas Castro could only put his volley wide. Subsequent attacks from the hosts failed to threaten Lafont.
As the match entered its closing stages, Fiorentina midfielder Abdou Diakhaté hoped to finish his full league debut with a maiden goal. The 20-year-old latched onto a corner delivery from Gérson in the 78th minute, but Alessio Cragno palmed it away to keep our lead at 3-1. Even so, we still did more than enough for our first away win this year!
Roma also won away from home, beating Atalanta 2-1 to stay 5th. More significant was Milan’s home loss by the same score to Genoa, which meant we were six points clear of 7th place, with just nine left to play for.
A goalless draw with rivals Torino kept Juventus at the summit. That being said, Napoli narrowed their lead to one point with a straightforward 3-0 victory against a Sassuolo team who’d imploded over recent months. Lazio’s 1-0 win against Parma took them into 3rd place, above an Inter side who’d surprisingly lost at Sampdoria.
FIORENTINA vs EMPOLI (Serie A, Match 36)
Our penultimate home game was against an Empoli team that was the dictionary definition of “inconsistent”. One week, they could demolish Napoli 5-1; the next, they could ship four goals without reply at Genoa. With three rounds to go, the Azzurri were amongst several teams still fearing relegation to Serie B.
We were comfortable favourites to win this match, and we had several chances to assert our authority early on. Marco Benassi drove a long-ranger just over the bar in the opening stages. Fellow midfielder Christian Nørgaard‘s wait for a first Viola goal was prolonged in the eighth minute by some assured goalkeeping from Ivan Provedel.
Empoli hadn’t mustered even a shot on goal when Benassi brought Afriyie Acquah to ground in the 23rd minute. Marco’s 10th booking of the season banned him from our next match, but his punishment didn’t end there. From 25 yards out, former Fiorentina left-back Manuel Pasqual floated a free-kick beyond our wall and into Lafont’s top-left corner, giving the Azzurri a surprise lead!
Empoli withstood several attacks from us either side of half-time. Our frustration didn’t end until the 59th minute, when – ironically – we equalised through a free-kick of our own. Chiesa’s effort was arguably even better than Pasqual’s, lifting the ball over the wall from an awkward angle and finding the proverbial postage stamp!
Seven minutes later, Pasqual responded by sending another dangerous free-kick deep into our box. Right-back Luca Bittante looped a header back across goal for Albania centre-half Frederic Veseli to beat a charging Lafont and head home. Empoli thought they’d retaken the lead… but the assistant referee raised his flag, and VAR subsequently confirmed the decision. No goal!
The match ended with several missed opportunities from Fiorentina player, including inside-forward Kevin Mirallas, who’d been restored to the line-up for the first time in over a month. Given how ineffective Mirallas was, I perhaps shouldn’t have bothered.
On the other side, Chiesa was a constant threat, even drawing a second yellow card out of Pasqual deep into stoppage time. That gave us one last chance to break the resistance of Empoli’s remaining 10 men, but Federico’s free-kick evaded everyone in the Azzurri box. The full-time whistle shortly afterwards confirmed a draw.
By the end of the week, our top-six position – and a place in the Europa League group stage – had been secured. Milan were now unable to catch us after a 2-0 win at Juventus, who were looking increasingly imperious in their push for yet another scudetto. Looking directly above us, Roma were now only a couple of points ahead following a 2-2 draw against Frosinone – a result which confirmed the Canarini’s relegation to Serie B.
Juve now had some daylight at the top after Napoli slipped to a 2-0 defeat against Udinese. Inter’s challenge ended in a 3-2 loss to Torino, though Lazio’s two-goal win at Atalanta kept them in the hunt.
SAMPDORIA vs FIORENTINA (Serie A, Match 37)
Before we got a chance to play Sampdoria, our last mathematical chance of cracking the top four was snuffed out. Inter’s 1-0 derby win against Milan officially put 4th place beyond our reach and meant that we had nothing else to play for. Well, perhaps there was the €200,000 extra prize money that would come with finishing 5th rather than 6th, I suppose.
Despite a poor first half to the season, Sampdoria had just about secured their top-flight status, thanks partly to their new coach Stefano Pioli. The Blucerchiati faithful were also very thankful to 20-goal striker Fabio Quagliarella, who had a fine chance of winning the prestigious Capocannoniere award at the ripe old age of 36.
Quagliarella almost helped set up another goal in the third minute of this contest. His cross-field ball to wing-back Junior Tavares was whipped towards Grégoire Defrel, whose header Lafont somehow managed to palm from his goal line.
Poland midfielder Karol Linetty then hit the post in the 14th minute before receiving one of five yellow cards handed out to home players in a combative first half. Two of them went to the same player, with Jakub Jankto’s second bookable challenge on Nørgaard breaking the referee’s patience. Sampdoria had to play the final three minutes of the first half – plus the entirely of the second – a man light.
Having the extra player shifted the momentum our way, though we found the hosts to be surprisingly solid. Not even a calf muscle injury to Defrel could weaken the team spirit of Pioli’s charges.
Then, midway through the second half, our midfielder Edimilson Fernandes was seemingly upended in the area by Lorenzo Tonelli. That meant Simeone stepped forward to drive in his sixth penalty of the season… or at least he would’ve done were it not for a fantastic stop by Emil Audero. To rub further salt into Viola wounds, the impressive 22-year-old keeper was on loan from Juventus.
A distraught Simeone was quickly replaced by Dusan Vlahovic, but the Serbian substitute could not bring about a change in fortunes. The 18-year-old had a close-range header caught by Audero just before a close-fought match fizzled out into a goalless stalemate.
Juventus’ expected coronation didn’t materialise, with Cristiano Ronaldo having to score in injury time just to avoid an embarrassing defeat against relegation-threatened Sassuolo. They would go into the final weekend two points ahead of Napoli (who won 1-0 at SPAL to relegate their opponents) and Lazio, whose 4-0 thrashing of Roma kept us in with a chance of finishing 5th.
As excitement grew over a three-way battle for the championship, we now knew what we had to do to secure a first top-five finish since… well, three seasons ago. Before beating Torino on Sunday to hold up our end of the bargain, we needed Chievo – and my good friend Giampiero Ventura – to do us a favour and turn Roma over on Saturday.
Balls. 6th place it is, then…
FIORENTINA vs TORINO (Serie A, Match 38)
Strictly speaking, we didn’t have absolutely nothing to fight for on the final day. Avoid defeat against Torino, and we would complete the season without a single home loss in any competitions. I had NEVER managed that in nearly 20 years of playing Championship or Football Manager (though I did once achieve an unbeaten home league record in FM13).
Meanwhile, Torino – coached by former Watford bench-warmer Walter Mazzarri – knew that they would finish somewhere between 8th and 10th. A calm and composed Mazzarri took things in his stride when a journalist asked him about one of his team’s lower-league loanees at the pre-match press conference:
For this final match of the season, I left out all five of my departing loanees and instead put two rising stars onto the big stage. Vlahovic got his first competitive start for Viola, while Diakhaté’s development continued with another appearance in midfield. The latter would help us to take the lead within 10 minutes of kick-off.
Diakhaté drove an excellent ball out right to Chiesa, who cut past Torino left-back Cristian Ansaldi before entering the six-yard box and shooting from an awkward angle. Chiesa first struck Salvatore Sirigu’s gloves, and then the post, before succeeding at the third attempt!
Sirigu bravely withstood several more shots from a dominant Fiorentina team, though he was greatly undermind by some shocking defending in the 38th minute. Having tackled Eysseric off the ball, on-loan Chelsea right-back Ola Aina unexplainably crossed it back into his own area! A bewildered Sirigu charged out of his area to try and claim it, only to be beaten by Vlahovic, who nodded in his first Viola goal!
We went into the half-time break 2-0 up, having not allowed Torino a single shot on goal. Chiesa was rested in favour of 19-year-old winger Marco Meli, who was unfortunate not to find the net on several occasions in the second half.
It was just as well that Il Toro’s attackers had shown as much menace as the Laughing Cow. Andrea Belotti had another shocker up front against us, comfortably missing the target with his only attempt on goal shortly after the restart. About 30 minutes later, Lafont watched the visitors’ only other shot – from midfielder Daniele Baselli – sail over his bar and deep into the crowd.
Things were ultimately so easy for us that I found time to give a debut to 17-year-old midfielder Tommaso Minocci. I also gave Simeone what looked set to be his final run-out in a purple jersey, though he failed to mark it with a goal.
Our 20th win of the season put us up to 70 points – the joint-most we had ever accumulated in a Serie A season. That was a fine achievement, as was this home record:
PLAYED: 19, WON: 12, DRAWN: 7, LOST: 0, FOR: 34, AGAINST: 14, POINTS: 43.
We hadn’t been quite so impressive on our travels, losing as many away league games as we’d won (eight). Nevertheless, we had met our objective for the season:
Two years without European football is too long for a club of Fiorentina’s stature. It’ll be great to be back next season, and one of our fans is feeling VERY optimistic…
Sassuolo won’t be back in Serie A next season, having filled the last remaining relegation place after losing 2-1 at 4th-placed Inter. The Neroverdi had accrued just three points from their last 12 games. Their fall from grace was completed after fellow strugglers Parma drew 1-1 with Cagliari and Atalanta saved themselves with a 2-0 win over Empoli.
As far as the championship was concerned, Napoli blew their chance by conceding a last-minute winner to already-relegated Frosinone. Lazio’s 3-0 win over Cagliari kept the Biancocelesti in with a shot… but they now needed Juventus to not win the final match of the season at home to Udinese.
There would be no fairytale end for the blue half of Rome. Mario Mandzukic netted twice and Cristiano Ronaldo once to finish as Serie A’s joint-top scorers on 21 goals with Inter’s Keita Baldé. Add on Douglas Costa’s early opener, and it was an ultimately comfortable 4-1 win for Juventus, who claimed the scudetto for an EIGHTH straight season.
Congratulations to Massimiliano Allegri and Juventus on claiming yet another championship. I am very pleased for you all. Now excuse me while I look for a bucket to throw up in.
My next post will be the 2018/2019 season review, which also includes some of my plans for next term. The 2019/2020 campaign will officially begin with Part 12, where I’ll look through my new signings and take you through pre-season. There’ll be a full squad and tactics report in Part 13, after the transfer window has closed.
“Forza viola!”
Fuller FM 
You must be logged in to post a comment.