After a short interlude, my second season at Fiorentina continues with plenty of match action. In this chapter, I’ll take you through the whole of November, plus the first two matches in a packed December schedule.
Can Fiorentina bounce back after a recent downturn in form and secure a place in the Europa League knockout rounds, or is there more agony to come for the Viola? If it’s the latter, I fear this story might not continue for much longer…
ROMA vs FIORENTINA (Serie A, Match 11)
We opened November with another trip to the Olimpico, where we hoped to register a second away win over Roman opposition this season. In the build-up to our duel with Vincenzo Montella’s Giallorossi, former Fiorentina full-back Manuel Pasqual (still playing for Empoli aged 37) had a few things to say about our recent struggles:
Right, let’s look at where Empoli are in the table… oh yes, they’re in the relegation zone. You worry about what your team are doing, Manuel. I’ll worry about mine.
‘Worry’ was certainly the operative word in the second minute. Roma showed why they were 3rd in the table when Maxime Gonalons’ first-time pass to midfield colleague Bryan Cristante was brilliantly thundered into the top-left corner of Alban Lafont‘s net.
Domenico Berardi narrowly missed out on a swift equaliser, though he would get another chance in the 17th minute. Valentin Eysseric was shoved by Roma defender Rick Karsdorp, earning us a fourth penalty in as many games. Berardi had scored from the first of them against Galatasaray, and our chief party organiser made no mistake here either.
The rest of the half didn’t go quite so well for Berardi, who was booked for a coming-together with Roma left-back Juan Jesus in the 21st minute before having an attempt on goal saved by Robin Olsen. Meanwhile, Lafont pulled off a superb stop from a half-volley by ex-Viola loanee Gérson to keep us level at the break.
I made a few tweaks at half-time, including giving Almamy Touré a ‘complete wing-back’. Just moments after the restart, our right-back marauded forward and cut the ball into Roma’s box, attempting to find striker Pietro Pellegri. However, the divine intervention of Jesus helped deflect the ball into his own net, putting us 2-1 ahead!
Touré was rather less impressive at our end in the 62nd minute. The Malian’s interception of a right-wing Manor Solomon cross showed as much footballing competence as Stacey Solomon, sending the ball towards the byline. Lafont’s meek attempt to push it away only found Edin Dzeko, and the Bosnian veteran gobbled up this equalising opportunity.
I later brought on vice-captain Federico Chiesa, whose best (and only) attempt to win us the game was tipped round the post by Olsen 10 minutes from time. Roma centre-back Kostas Manolas then rattled our bar in the dying moments, but a 2-2 draw was a fair result, all told.
Milan marched on to a 2-1 win over Salernitana, which did not bode too well for our confrontation with the unbeaten Serie A leaders the following week. Napoli also retained a zero in their losses column after squeaking past Bologna 1-0.
Juventus’ 2-1 victory over Udinese – who led 1-0 at half-time – put them level on points with Roma. Lazio, Torino and Inter all won away from home, which meant we slipped into the bottom half.
FIORENTINA vs GALATASARAY (Europa League, Group B – Match 4)
While our league fortunes were showing no signs of improving, we were looking rather better in the Europa League. If we could record back-to-back wins over Galatasaray, and Charleroi failed to beat Everton, we would immediately qualify for the knockout stages alongside the Toffees.
On the other hand, defeat on home soil against the Turkish giants would raise serious questions about our continental future. Bernard Mensah and Eren Derdiyok each came particularly close to giving Gala the advantage in the first half. On a more positive note, our defence did catch former Switzerland striker Derdiyok and his fellow attackers offside on several occasions.
That first period had been a nervy one for us, and that didn’t improve two minutes into the second. Our vulnerability from free-kicks was exposed yet again when Younes Belhanda’s delivery went over everyone wearing a purple jersey. On the receiving end was former Tottenham defender Vlad Chiriches, whose volley edged ‘Cim Bom’ in front.
With Nikola Kalinic having yet another shocker up front, we looked increasingly hopeless. Then Belhanda went from hero to zero in the 70th minute, hacking down Marco Benassi with two feet. The Morocco playmaker was sent off, and Gala had to defend a narrow lead for 20 minutes with only 10 men.
It took us until the 88th minute to get back level, with Benassi involved again. His low cross from the right wing found utility man Bryan Dabo, who rifled a delicious half-volley past Fernando Muslera to leave the home tifosi relieved.
Relief would turn to delight in the fourth minute of injury time. Berardi won us yet another spot-kick after being tripped by Romario Benzar, and a confident third penalty conversion in three recent attempts turned the game around! Galatasaray were stunned!
After that dramatic comeback, I learned that Everton had comfortably beaten Charleroi 3-0, with a certain Giovanni Simeone opening the scoring before Gylfi Sigurðsson netted twice. That meant – with two group games still to play – our mission was complete:
Though winning Group B would give us a seeding in the Round of 32 draw, I’d decided I would take it easy in those remaining matches against Everton at home and Charleroi away. For as long as our Serie A situation remained precarious, that had to take priority.
FIORENTINA vs AC MILAN (Serie A, Match 12)
Our last three league games at the Franchi had not offered us much joy. Yes, there was the valiant 4-3 defeat to Juventus, but that was slap-bang in the middle of goalless borefests against Chievo and Genoa. I hoped we would show rather more fight when Milan came to town, but with the Rossoneri in such great form, expectations weren’t particularly high.
After the opening 20 minutes, though, I was feeling rather more optimistic. Benassi and Berardi each forced early saves out of Gianluigi Donnarumma, who’d kept clean sheets in six out of 11 league matches for Milan this season. In the battle of Serie A’s top young goalkeepers, Gigio was outshining Lafont, whose first major contribution was a fine catch from Franck Kessié in the 29th minute.
A promising Viola attack on 37 minutes broke down when Chiesa lost the ball to Davide Calabria. The ball was cleared to Mariano on the right flank and then gradually moved forward and inside to Justin Kluivert, Manuel Locatelli and – lastly – Samu Castillejo. Lafont couldn’t quite get to the Spanish forward’s calm low drive, and an incisive Rossoneri breakaway was complete.
Potential salvation came 10 minutes into the second half. Almost as soon as Viola left-back Cristiano Biraghi had thrown the ball into Milan’s area, Eysseric went down after an apparent shove from Andrea Conti. Despite the visitors’ protests, the referee pointed to the spot. For the SIXTH match in a row, we had ourselves a penalty!
With Berardi having been subbed at half-time, the responsibility of taking this penalty was handed to Kalinic. The unpredictable Croat had missed against Genoa in October… and he would miss again, sending the spot-kick straight down Donnarumma’s throat. That was his last act before being swiftly replaced with Pellegri.
Kalinic’s miss sapped our confidence from us for the final half-hour. Milan defended superbly to ensure Donnarumma had little else to do, while we had both Jordan Veretout and Dabo booked in the closing stages.
That defeat extended our winless run in Serie A to five games, while also knocking us down another place to 12th. If it hadn’t been for Europe, I would surely have lost my job by now.
As for Milan, they remained two points clear of Napoli, whose own unbeaten start contineud with a similarly narrow win over Empoli. Juventus edged a 3-2 thriller with Sampdoria and assumed 3rd position after Roma were stunned late on by Verona.
The international break gave us plenty of time to put in the hard yards and work our way out of our recent rut. It also gave on-loan defenders David Hancko (at Salernitana) and Petko Hristov (at Botev Plovdiv) their first senior international caps for Slovakia and Bulgaria respectively. At least the future looked bright for our backline.
With regards to Luciano Vietto… not so much.
Ah… now I see why he flopped at Fulham! He’s the Argentinian Danny Welbeck!
ATALANTA vs FIORENTINA (Serie A, Match 13)
After five Serie A matches without a win, we travelled to Bergamo for what I expected to be another tough battle with Atalanta. The pressure was well and truly on us.
We needed cool heads at the back, but our captain Germán Pezzella – of all people – didn’t take long to lose his. Having been booked in just the third minute for pushing Atalanta striker Duván Zapata, Pezzella failed to heed the referee’s warning. A little over three minutes later, he bundled Zapata to the turf to stop a counter-attack. The yellow card came out again, followed by the red, and we were already down to 10!
As Chiesa received the captain’s armband, Nikola Milenkovic came on to replace Eysseric and fill the gap left by Pezzella’s stupidity. I might as well have played Valentin at centre-half, because less than three minutes after coming on, Nikola sprayed a slack pass to Atalanta midfielder Filippo Melegoni. The ball was then played out right to Cristhian Stuani, who supplied a killer cross that Zapata headed in to open the scoring.
Worse was to come midway through the first half, when Veretout twisted his knee. He came off as a precaution, and there would also be concerns about a knock to Chiesa, though he managed to run it off.
We were now very much on the back foot, with only some superb goalkeeping from Lafont preventing La Dea from running riot. Milenkovic and Pellegri did get shots on target at the other end, but by the interval, we were lucky that the scoreline was ‘only’ 1-0.
Atalanta continued to batter us in the second half, and another defensive error – this time by Vítor Hugo – opened the door for them to score again after an hour. Vítor’s inability to intercept Alejandro Gómez’s free-kick allowed Zapata to head home his second goal.
The crossbar denied Stuani Atalanta’s third goal in the 63rd minute, but the hosts would only need to wait another five minutes. Another Gómez free-kick had us in disarray, and Zapata zapped in his hat-trick goal. Has Tony Pulis been secretly advising the other 19 teams in Serie A, ‘cos we can’t seem to get a handle on defending against free-kicks?!
Mercifully, the pain ended there. Zapata had chances to bag a fourth goal against a Fiorentina defence that was about as stable as a cardboard box in a rainstorm, but at least Lafont was carrying out his job to a competent level. I honestly can’t think of anyone else who did in a pitiful 3-0 defeat. Well… maybe the kitman, but that’s it.
Milan stretched their advantage at the top to four points, as they beat Verona 3-1 while nearest challengers Napoli could only manage a 1-1 draw at Chievo. Juventus won an aggressive battle with Lazio 2-0 to stay 3rd.
By now, though, there was a chasmic gap between us and the top three. Even 4th-placed Torino – who won 3-0 at Roma – and those teams in the Europa League places were pulling clear. Barring a sudden turnaround, we would have to be more concerned about relegation than the top seven.
Pezzella was fined a week’s wages for his idiotic sending-off, while the errors of Milenkovic and Vítor Hugo earned our other centre-halves official warnings. They and the rest of our players were subjected to intensive training and an emergency team meeting the next day.
FIORENTINA vs EVERTON (Europa League, Group B – Match 5)
With both teams already through to the knockout stages, this match would effectively decide who topped Group B. Everton would secure 1st place with an away win, though victory would see us leapfrog the Toffees ahead of our final-day outing in Belgium.
This match saw Giovanni Simeone return to the Franchi, so guess who put Everton 1-0 up after four minutes? You guessed it… 22-year-old left-back Antonee Robinson, whose first senior goal for the club was a sumptuous right-footed strike into Lafont’s top-right corner from the ‘D’. Figures.
That early goal forced us to buck up our ideas and push for an equaliser. Our left-back Maximiliano Olivera gave Jordan Pickford his first test in the 17th minute, but the England number 1 was equal to that, as well as Kalinic’s angled effort four minutes later.
We had the greater quantity of chances in the first half, but Everton’s chances were of greater quality. Shortly before half-time, Colombia midfielder Wilmar Barrios helped his team double their lead when his cross was met with a world-class 20-yard volley from… Ainsley Maitland-Niles?! ARE YOU SERIOUS, FM?!
There would be more frustration in that area of the pitch when the teams swapped halves for the second period. After 61 minutes, Eysseric’s searching pass sent Kalinic past the defence and one-on-one with Pickford. Nikola skied it high over the bar, and that was his last act before being replaced with Dusan Vlahovic.
Things didn’t improve at all over the final half-hour, and we meekly succumbed to a third home league defeat this season. If it was any consolation, our defence didn’t allow Simeone a shot on target… and Pezzella stayed on the field for more than seven minutes.
Everton’s victory guaranteed them 1st place and meant they would be seeded for the first knockout round. Galatasaray and Charleroi kept one another goalless in the group’s other game… as if anyone outside of those two teams cared.
This was our third straight defeat in all competitions, and the Viola tifosi were losing patience. There was one player in particular who copped substantial criticism:
I’m way ahead of you, Gennaro. Kalinic has now been demoted to the Under-20s and – barring a huge injury crisis – will never play for us again while I’m in charge. He’ll probably be sent back to Atlético Madrid in January.
FIORENTINA vs SALERNITANA (Serie A, Match 14)
I made a few tweaks to my 4-2-3-1 formation for our first two fixtures in December, both of which were against newly-promoted teams who had thus far kept themselves clear of relegation. First up were Salernitana, who came through Serie B’s play-offs last spring to end a 20-year absence from the top division.
One of my big changes was to use a trequartista instead of an advanced playmaker, as that role seemed a bit too static for my liking. Riccardo Saponara filled that new role… but something didn’t seem quite right. Saponara and Pellegri seemed to be occupying the same spaces most of the time, which didn’t help when it came to breaking through a stubborn defence.
At the end of a frustrating first half-hour, we got a chance to redeem themselves when Pellegri was apparently pushed by Granata defender Tiago Casasola. Saponara took the penalty, tucking it away for his first competitive Fiorentina goal.
Though Saponara narrowly missed out on a second goal with a swerving effort in the 36th minute, I wasn’t convinced with my tweaks. In an effort to stretch play out a bit more, I switched him to an attacking midfielder and employed Christian Nørgaard as a deep-lying playmaker.
The changes did seem to make a positive difference, though when our second goal came in the 49th minute, it was via a set-piece. Eysseric’s free-kick to the far post was flicked across goal by Chiesa to Pellegri. Pietro then tried to glance it into the far end of the net, but a heavy deflection off fellow 18-year-old Mattia Novella in the Salernitana defence did that for him.
Pellegri could’ve strengthened our position later on, while substitutes Dabo and Vlahovic also had opportunities. In the end, though, we had to settle for a steady 2-0 win. Salernitana couldn’t manage a single shot on target, thanks largely to Kevin Diks and a very sturdy Viola backline.
Milan and Napoli continued to sweep past everyone at the top, though they only beat Torino and Parma respectively by single goals. Juventus’ hold on 3rd place was loosened by a narrow loss at Inter, and Timothée Kolodziejczak’s late winner against Genoa took Sampdoria into the top four.
FIORENTINA vs PESCARA (Serie A, Match 15)
For our next match, I used a deep-lying playmaker from the start, as well as employing Nicolás Benedetti as a shadow striker behind Pellegri. I was expecting another stern test of sorts from Pescara, who were mid-table with just three losses on their record since winning Serie B.
Pescara certainly showed some attacking intent early on. Arkadiusz Reca had a ninth-minute shot blocked by Pezzella – now back in the team after being banned from playing Salernitana. Our returning captain also cleared Reca’s subsequent square ball to striker Brayan Perea.
In the 18th minute, we got the opportunity to hit the Delfini on the break. Eysseric cut out Gastón Brugman’s cross-field ball and pumped it first-time to Pellegri, who made a run into the box before awaiting support. When Benedetti arrived, he received a perfectly-waited square pass, which he calmly drilled into the net.
We launched several attacks later in the first half, but Pescara had goalkeeper Vincenzo Fiorillo to thank for keeping them alive. Five different Viola players – including Eysseric and Chiesa – had shots saved by the 29-year-old before half-time.
Those saves took a toll on our confidence, and we weren’t quite as threatening after the interval. The visitors deserved some credit for keeping the scoreline down, and they could have even pinched a point through some late attempts on goal. Thankfully, we stayed strong and ground out another victory to keep us slowly climbing up the table.
While we edged into the top half, Sampdoria and Inter were also on the move – into 3rd and 4th respectively. Their victories at Roma and Cagliari allowed them to leapfrog Juventus, who hit another stumbling block in losing 1-0 at home to Napoli.
Meanwhile, leaders Milan overcame Udinese 2-0 for yet another win – and a 26th match without defeat in all competitions this season! Can anybody possibly stop this runaway train?
The front two are still streets ahead of us, obviously, but the rest of the top half doesn’t look quite so far out of our reach now:
And we’ll leave it there for now. Join me again next time, when we round off December, complete the Europa League group phase, and reach the halfway stage of the Serie A season. Let us hope that this Florentine renaissance continues…
“Forza viola!”
Fuller FM 
Another brilliant update…. I was willingly you on has I was reading. I hope you have turned the corner. Looking forward to the next part 💜