A premature exit from both cups means that Fiorentina have just Serie A left to aim for as we come to the business end of the 2020/2021 season. That might actually prove helpful, giving us plenty of time to prepare for each match while our top-four rivals have their eyes on other prizes.
Today’s chapter will see us go through four matches in February, and another two in March. The last of them is against none other than our greatest foes Juventus, who appear to be coming back into some form after a shaky first half to the campaign.
We must start, though, by announcing that one of Fiorentina’s first-team players has been sold late in the winter transfer windows. He wasn’t one of our key men by any stretch, but he will be missed.
A FOND FAREWELL
Before you ask… no, it wasn’t Domenico Berardi. Krasnodar were the latest club to make a move for our unsettled forward, submitting an offer totalling around €17.75million in value. I turned that down, though €20million would perhaps be the tipping point if the Bulls tried again. There were still three weeks remaining in the Russian transfer window, which left them with plenty of time to think things over.
Kevin Diks wasn’t leaving either, though he got annoyed when I rejected a €7.5million offer from Ajax. Diks wanted to return to his native Netherlands and play Champions League football, but I wasn’t prepared to leave Almamy Touré as the only senior right-back in our squad. The flying Dutchman had to stay put and keep quiet, even when I spurned Ajax’s follow-up bid of €8million.
Okay, I think I’ve left you hanging for too long. Here’s the big news:
Yes, we’ve said goodbye to Nicolás Benedetti. Bayer Leverkusen originally offered €11million, but some shrewd negotiating got us a deal that I was very happy to accept. €17.5million was a fair amount for a capable box-to-box player who had done okay during his 18 months in Florence without ever being spectacular. It also represented a huge profit on the €600,000 we paid Deportivo Cali for him in 2019.
Letting Benedetti go at this stage in the season was a calculated risk, as I now had only five senior central midfielders to choose from. Were any of them to pick up a serious injury, it would leave us quite thin on the ground in that department.
We now had around €75million in the bank, so what better to do than invest some of it in the club’s future? The chairman was initially reluctant to fund improvements to our youth facilities, but I soon won him over.
FIORENTINA vs VERONA (Serie A, Match 25)
This had been the season from hell for Hellas Verona. The league’s worst defence had shipped 14 goals in the last four matches alone, and supporters of the Mastini must have been fearing another drubbing when they arrived at the Artemio Franchi.
We looked to justify our tag as heavy favourites by taking the game to Verona. Christian Nørgaard almost got us off to the perfect start after eight minutes. After receiving a throw-in from Cristiano Biraghi and cutting inside from the left, the Danish midfielder’s fierce shot was tipped over by Nícolas in the visiting goal.
Though another of our midfielders – Jordan Veretout – twisted his knee in the 19th minute and came off early, we would make the breakthrough four minutes later. Patrick Roberts‘ scintillating form continued when he volleyed a delightful Biraghi cross in at the far post.
Our 1-0 lead would only be intact until the 25th minute, when Verona made their first counter-attack count. Striker Samuel Di Carmine managed to get away from his marker Kurt Zouma to unleash an excellent half-volley from Federico Mattiello’s right-wing cross.
There would be more frustration back in Verona’s half during the rest of the period. Radamel Falcao‘s wait for a maiden Viola goal continued, and the Colombian centre-forward was replaced with Pietro Pellegri after being booked just before half-time.
Pellegri was gifted a golden opportunity to restore our lead seven minutes after the restart. Though Artur Ionita did well to nick the ball off Roberts in the Verona box, the Mastini midfielder ruined his good work with a terribly underhit pass to defender Florian Lejeune. Pellegri stole the ball and fired it agonisingly against the post, only for Federico Chiesa to burst forward and finish it off for him!
We were now back in our element, and after a few unsuccessful attempts to go 3-1 up, a well-worked corner routine paid dividends on 75 minutes. Star performer Biraghi’s delivery to the near post was flicked across the six-yard box by Pellegri, and Zouma’s header completed a classy victory for the Viola.
Torino slipped to a somewhat surprising defeat at Genoa, allowing Pescara to bump them down to 6th after beating Lazio 1-0. As expected, Lazio had sacked Simone Inzaghi at the end of January and were now looking for a high-profile manager to keep them clear of relegation danger.
Champions Inter rebounded from their defeat in Turin the previous week by comfortably beating Bologna 4-1. Napoli bettered them by putting five goals past Sampdoria, while Juventus could only manage two against Udinese but still came away victorious.
AC MILAN vs FIORENTINA (Serie A, Match 26)
I have to say I was really excited about this match, because this was when ‘Fullerball’ met ‘Sarriball’ at long last. Having sacked Gennaro Gattuso after a sharp decline in form, Milan had brought the erstwhile Chelsea head coach Maurizio Sarri back to Italy as his replacement. I was very quick to praise my tactical inspiration before the match:
And I’m pleased to say that the feeling was mutual:
Friendship would soon be cast aside when both teams went into battle. Julian Weigl was first into the book for Milan after 10 minutes, when the midfielder clashed with counterpart Marco Benassi. On the other side, we had Chiesa and captain Germán Pezzella cautioned before the break.
The first real chance for either team came midway through the half. Left-back Ricardo Rodríguez floated a right-wing cross to the head of Portuguese hotshot André Silva, who couldn’t quite get his effort beyond Alban Lafont. Rodríguez’ game would come to a premature end a few minutes later, when he sprained his ankle ligaments in a lunging tackle on our right-back Almamy Touré.
Pellegri came closest for us on the half-hour mark, when he had a shot saved by Gianluigi Donnarumma after being forced into a difficult angle by Milan’s substitute full-back Aïssa Mandi. Donnarumma then denied Roberts a fourth goal in five Fiorentina outings before Giacomo Bonaventura came within inches of putting the Rossoneri ahead.
An early second-half booking for Zouma prompted me to alter my defence before Kurt started thinking he was in Malmö rather than Milan. Mind you, the introduction of Vítor Hugo didn’t do us much good when the hosts scored in style after 64 minutes. Biraghi’s clearance from Samu Castillejo’s cross into our box only found Franck Kessié, and the Ivorian midfield maestro hammered in a truly unstoppable rocket.
Having spent a few minutes marvelling at Kessié’s brilliance, we switched back to the job at hand. Substitute Valentin Eysseric stepped up to take yet another important penalty in the 78th minute, when Mattia Caldara’s holding foul on Pellegri put Milan’s advantage in jeopardy. Eysseric had scored from all his previous four spot-kicks this season, and this one found the target too, squirming underneath Donnarumma’s dive.
The points would ultimately be shared after a 1-1 draw that left me quite satisfied… and a little relieved. Kessié had bossed the midfield all night long, and it might’ve been fitting had he won the game for Milan in injury time. Luckily for us, his last-ditch drive from a Bonaventura pass whistled inches wide.
Despite that draw, we looked set to go above Juventus into 3rd place… until Riccardo Orsolini salvaged a point for the Old Lady at Roma. Elsewhere, Inter and Napoli recorded victories at Empoli and Udinese respectively to put the top two places out of our reach. We retained a three-point lead on 5th, though Torino now held that position again after thrashing Pescara 4-0 to leapfrog the Delfini.
FIORENTINA vs SAMPDORIA (Serie A, Match 27)
Our next opponents were Sampdoria, who had not been outside the bottom six all season long and were in serious danger of being relegated. The Blucerchiati were now coached by Massimo Epifani, following Stefano Pioli’s dismissal in November.
To be honest, persisting in playing a 38-year-old Fabio Quagliarella whose legs had gone up front was not helping matters for Sampdoria. His strike partner here was the one-time Viola target Vincent Janssen, who was no speed merchant himself. Even so, the Dutchman did test Lafont’s resolve with a header in the second minute.
At the other end, we were finding Samp’s 35-year-old goalkeeper Lukasz Fabianski in fine form. The Pole made some impressive saves in the early stages from the likes of Touré and Roberts. Touré did help Chiesa get the better of Fabianski from a right-wing cross in the 21st minute, but our vice-skipper was caught fractionally offside.
Our other forward also found the net in the 34th minute, and this time, it was allowed to stand. Roberts thrilled the Franchi faithful by taking the ball from Geubbels, cutting inside, and firing an unstoppable bullet from the edge of the ‘D’.
Six minutes later, we were 2-0 to the good. Benassi showed great awareness to intercept a slack punt upfield from Fabianski. After taking the ball upfield, he found Chiesa in space, and the 23-year-old finished with the surgical precision that had been sadly less prevalent this season than last.
Sampdoria needed an early second-half strike to get themselves back in the game. After Zouma tripped Janssen about 25 yards from goal, defensive midfielder Leonardo Capezzi stepped forward to try and pull a goal back. His free-kick swerved over the wall, clipped the underside of the crossbar, and somehow didn’t cross the line before a relieved Lafont caught it!
Our stroke of luck was devastating for the Blucerchiati, who never really recovered. Indeed, we would secure a 3-0 win nine minutes from the end. Lucas Tousart‘s header from Chiesa’s corner was blocked by defender Roberts Veips, but the ball fell to another Fiorentina midfielder. Substitute Sandro Tonali‘s strike was as clinical as they came, and the young playmaker had his first goal in a Viola jersey!
With the points wrapped up, I could afford to rest Tousart for the last few minutes and give a debut to a Primavera midfielder. 18-year-old Gian Marco Neri had put in some strong performances for the youth teams and deserved his chance.
That win still wasn’t enough to get us above Juventus, who had beaten Palermo 2-0 to stay 3rd. We and the Bianconeri were now hot on the heels of Napoli, who’d lost at home to a Roma team whose recent resurgence took them back into the top six. That in turn allowed Inter to increase their championship lead to eight points with a 6-1 demolition of Sassuolo.
UDINESE vs FIORENTINA (Serie A, Match 28)
Preparations for our trip to Udine were hampered by an ankle injury to captain Pezzella. That meant opportunity knocked for 21-year-old Alessandro Bastoni, who would partner Zouma in the centre of our defence. Things didn’t quite go to plan for them, at least not initially.
Disaster struck in the fifth minute, when Udinese forward Rodrigo De Paul threaded the ball between Alex and Kurt to pick out Kevin Lasagna. The tastiest striker in Serie A was clean through, and though Lafont valiantly got a glove to his shot, it wasn’t enough to divert the ball away from the goal.
Mind you, we didn’t take long to put that early setback behind us. Just three minutes later, Pellegri won us yet another penalty upon being shoved by defender Paulo Oliveira, and – quelle surprise – Eysseric made no mistake from the spot. An emphatic drive into Juan Russo’s top-left corner drew us level at 1-1.
Udinese soon went back on the offensive, with De Paul again looking their biggest threat. The skilful Argentine had four attempts on goal over the next 15 minutes, though two were saved by Lafont and the others went narrowly wide. Czech midfielder Antonin Barak then sent a 39th-minute header into Lafont’s hands, and we went into the interval wondering how we were still in the game.
The second half saw more of the same. While we did manage to launch a few unsuccessful counter-attacks, we spent much of the period withstanding whatever the Zebrette could throw at us. Our defence eventually crumbled in the 85th minute, when Bastoni’s interception of a direct ball by Udinese midfielder Álvaro fell to an Argentinian inside-forward. That man wasn’t De Paul, but it was Ignacio Pussetto, whose lethal half-volley appeared to secure a 2-1 home win.
Three minutes after that, however, our zero turned into a hero. Bastoni couldn’t have timed his first Fiorentina goal much better, glancing Roberts’ whipped corner past Musso to save a point and extend our unbeaten run to six games.
The four teams directly below us all won to keep our Champions League place under pressure. Torino cut the gap between 4th and 5th to three points by claiming a 2-1 victory in Sicily against Palermo. 6th-placed Roma – who would be our next opponents – defeated SPAL by the same score at the Olimpico.
Juventus took 2nd place from Napoli’s grasp by beating them 2-1 at the Allianz Stadium. They were eight points behind Inter, who surprisingly stumbled to a 0-0 draw at rock-bottom Verona.
Those were the standings at the end of February. The general mood in Florence was of optimism as we rolled into March…
YOUTH INTAKE
We’ve had more promising youth intakes, that’s for sure. And yes, muggins here forgot to add the player personalities to the squad view this time…
Damiano Fioretti looks decent enough for a centre-forward, but we’re already stacked with talent in that department, so he might struggle to make an impact. Federico Morelli perhaps stands a better chance of breaking into the first-team midfield if he reaches his potential. You’ll also notice a fellow Briton in attacking midfielder Jamie Smith, who’s originally from the exotic surrounds of… erm, Trowbridge.
If you’re wondering what’s happened with some of the lads from the previous youth intakes, let me enlighten you. Midfielder Moussa N’Da and wideman Stefano Rega – who emerged two years ago – are both Under-20s regulars and could make their senior debuts soon. Filippo Turci is the first-choice goalkeeper for the Under-18s team, where promising forwards Michel Cecci and Alberto Scotta are coming along nicely in their first full seasons.
FIORENTINA vs ROMA (Serie A, Match 29)
Having finally given up on his new lifelong dream of playing for Krasnodar, Berardi decided to stop sulking and get on with his Fiorentina career. He now had to work hard to regain his place, especially with a certain Englishman having taken Florence by storm. That man was not Chris Fuller, and neither was it Jamie Smith:
While Paddy and the other Fiorentina boys were in form, so too were Roma, who had revived their European hopes in recent weeks. The Giallorossi almost scored a fluke opening goal in the very first minute, but left-back José Gayà’s swerving shot was just kept off the line by an alert Lafont. Gayà would later collect the only caution of the game for a push on Roberts.
Our first attempt on goal came after 11 minutes. A surprisingly effective long ball from Tousart cleared the Roma defence and found Pellegri. Alas, Pietro’s recent misfortune in front of goal continued when he clipped the post. He would send another opportunity begging in the 23rd minute, when opposing centre-half Elio Capradossi made a determined block.
Veretout and Chiesa also failed to find the target in a tepid first half, and things wouldn’t get any better for us in the second. In fact, we couldn’t muster another attempt on goal after the break, thus going through the entire 90 minutes without registering a single shot on target. That was an unwanted record in any home match, regardless of the opposition.
Fortunately, Roma lacked the killer instinct that would’ve moved them within two points of us. Lafont kept out a couple of late efforts from Giallorossi duo Steven Nzonzi and Cengiz Ünder, while the rest of our defence also did enough to grind out a goalless draw. The match might not have pleased many of our supporters, but the result was acceptable as far as I was concerned.
Had Torino won their match, they would have trailed us by a single point. Thankfully, their goalkeeper Salvatore Sirigu did us a huge favour by putting the ball into his own net and gifting Bologna an away victory. Pescara had also tripped up, losing 2-0 at home to Sassuolo.
Inter reasserted their dominance on Serie A by coming from behind to humiliate Milan 6-1. Napoli had 35 shots at goal against Palermo and scored three of them to retake 2nd place from Juventus, who were locked in stalemate with SPAL.
JUVENTUS vs FIORENTINA (Serie A, Match 30)
The latest installment of one of Italian football’s fiercest rivalries promised to be intriguing. Antonio Conte’s Juventus might have been on a 10-game unbeaten run in Serie A, but we would go above them into 3rd position if we could end that streak at the Allianz Stadium.
We adopted a counter-attacking approach from the start, withstanding a couple of wayward shots from Gonzalo Higuaín and Marko Pjaca before looking to hit back. Chiesa got a 7th-minute free-kick round the Juventus wall, but not past Wojciech Szczesny in goal.
Pellegri came close to putting us ahead from a Touré cross in the 22nd minute, shortly after Lafont had caught Juve vice-captain Leonardo Bonucci’s header at the other end. Bonucci would soon end up in the referee’s book, as would Zouma and Eysseric from our perspective.
The Bianconeri launched some more attacks late in the first half. Pjaca skied a shot well over the bar in the 40th minute, shortly after the left-sided forward had strained his thigh. On the right wing was the rather fitter and more threatening Bertrand Traoré, whose injury-time cross to Higuaín was nodded straight at Lafont. Juve were perhaps missing the brilliance of Cristiano Ronaldo, who’d injured his hip in January and was not quite fit enough to return to action.
I brought Geubbels on for the ineffective Eysseric before the restart. Operating on the right wing, the French teenager caused Juventus problems in the 51st minute with an excellent run before crossing to Pellegri. Pietro still couldn’t beat Szczesny, though, and Willem would go up front in his place after he was subbed later on.
There were several misses at both ends before the game’s defining moment came on 81 minutes. Geubbels pressured Bonucci into a back-pass to Szczesny and then proceeded to harry the Polish goalkeeper. Szczesny showed about as much composure as he used to do at Arsenal, and in a matter of moments, Geubbels had knocked the ball from his feet and into an empty net!
The home fans were left stunned at their number 1’s mistake, but our tifosi were absolutely delighted! After a spirited display of defending in the closing stages, we could celebrate our first away victory against Juventus since 2015!
How does it feel to finally get one up on your fiercest foes after so long?
Fiorentina were now up into 3rd, and level on points with Napoli, who succumbed to a 3-1 home loss against SPAL. Their mistakes allowed Inter to go an astonishing 12 points clear at the summit by winning 4-2 at Sampdoria. There would surely be no catching the Nerazzurri now.
Torino were beaten 2-0 at Empoli, which meant they yielded 5th place to Roma, who outclassed Chievo 6-0. The Giallorossi still had some way to go to catch us in the standings, which now looked like this:
We now had an impossibly long international break, with us having to wait nearly three weeks for our next match. To keep my players’ match sharpness up, I arranged a couple of Under-20s and Under-18s friendlies to play in. What could possibly…
…go wrong? [Sigh] I might regret selling Benedetti now…
I make that eight games unbeaten now for Fiorentina. If we can keep that form up over the next eight, we should be safely into the Champions League… but as you’ve seen over these first 30 chapters of this story, disaster is never too far away. I’m equal parts excited and anxious about what’s to come in Part 31.
“Forza viola!”
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