If we’ve learned anything during this story, it’s that life is never dull at Fiorentina. That has certainly been true in my third season as manager. After disappointingly early exits from both the Europa League and the Coppa Italia, we could yet finish the campaign on a high.
A late-season winning streak has left the Viola on the cusp of guaranteeing qualification for the Champions League and extending my stay in Florence. There’s even a chance that we could overhaul what was once a huge lead for Inter and snatch the Serie A scudetto from their grasp. That said, we’ll almost certainly need to beat them at the Artemio Franchi to stand a chance of achieving the improbable.
So, without further ado, let me take you through the final four games of the league season, starting with a potentially troublesome visit to Atalanta…
ATALANTA vs FIORENTINA (Serie A, Match 35)
Inter started their end-of-season run-in with a home game against SPAL on Saturday. If Claudio Ranieri’s visitors did us a favour, we would have a chance to go within a point of the leaders by winning at Atalanta on Sunday. Alas, there would be no miracle at the San Siro, as Inter won 3-0 to move a step closer to retaining their scudetto.
That meant the pressure would be firmly on us in Bergamo. Teenager Gian Marco Neri started in midfield for a second straight game, as although Sandro Tonali was now back from his calf muscle injury, he wasn’t fit enough to start.
The most experienced midfielder in our side – Christian Nørgaard – put a shot wide after just four minutes. We then faced several attacks from Atalanta, who’d lost in the Coppa Italia Final to Rafa Benítez’s Lazio a little over a week earlier. While La Dea were missing star striker Duván Zapata through suspension, experienced inside-forward Alejandro Gómez did pose a real threat to Alban Lafont‘s goal in the 21st minute.
The deadlock would be broken four minutes before half-time, through the most unexpected of sources. After receiving a throw-in from left-back Cristiano Biraghi deep in Atalanta’s half, Nørgaard approached the penalty arc before cutting the ball back to Neri. The 18-year-old showed remarkable composure to control the ball and then drive in a 25-yard blockbuster! That was some way for him to score his first senior goal!
Neri then claimed an unwanted first just before the break, picking up a yellow card for bringing down home midfielder Filippo Melegoni. Though he was having an exceptional game by all accounts, the youngster would be substituted midway through the second half, by which point the result had been put in fresh doubt.
Atalanta had got themselves back level in the 59th minute, when Gómez’s cross from the left wing was nodded home by a former Viola attacker in Josip Ilicic. The Slovenia international almost scored again four minutes later, only for Lafont to make a fine catch. Even so, I couldn’t really take any more liberties, so Tonali replaced Neri, and Patrick Roberts came on for a disappointing Valentin Eysseric.
Roberts came within inches of restoring our lead after 75 minutes, pulling Federico Chiesa’s square pass just beyond the post. I then brought Radamel Falcao on up front in an extra effort to clinch victory, but the Colombian veteran once again flattered to deceive.
Then came two late, cruel blows. Firstly, Nørgaard hurt his shin whilst tackling Atalanta right-back Timothy Castagne in the 86th minute. La Dea then snatched the points in stoppage time, with centre-half Marco Varnier’s header from Gómez’s corner ending our 12-match unbeaten run. It really was unlucky 13 for the Viola.
Our Champions League place was still not quite secure after that result. Though 6th-placed Juventus suffered a 3-0 defeat at Pescara which now prohibited them from overtaking us, 5th-placed Roma still had a chance of doing just that. They won their local derby 3-1 against Lazio to retain hopes of qualifying for Europe’s elite competition.
Napoli and Milan each registered wins away from home – at Genoa and Empoli respectively – to creep closer to us. We certainly could not breathe easily, especially not with the presumptive champions-elect next on our schedule.
FIORENTINA vs INTERNAZIONALE (Serie A, Match 36)
The potential title decider took place on Sunday 9 May, though we had an eye on Roma’s meeting with Torino the previous evening. If Torino could prevent the Giallorossi from snatching another victory, our wait to return to the Champions League would finally end. Those 90 minutes in Rome would be almost as nervy as any I’d experienced in any match involving my Viola.
At last! It only took me three seasons, but I had finally taken Fiorentina back into the promised land! I’d obviously have preferred us to have qualified off our own bats instead of relying on other results, but whatever!
With a top-four finish secured, we could now turn all our focus to chasing an improbable league title. To have any chance of staying in contention, we needed to beat Inter at the Artemio Franchi. Any other result would see Luciano Spalletti’s charges retain the scudetto there and then.
Much to the home fans’ delight, we got off to the perfect start. Only 23 seconds had passed when Willem Geubbels slipped the ball beyond Inter goalkeeper Keylor Navas, having brushed aside his marker Luiz Felipe to latch onto a delightful long ball from Domenico Berardi!
That early blow only served to rile the Nerazzurri up further, and they would equalise after 11 minutes. When Berardi ran into left-back Federico Dimarco, the visitors launched a quick breakaway that ended with striker Lautaro Martínez powering Radja Nainggolan’s incisive pass into the net.
1-1 was how the scoreline stayed at half-time, despite our best efforts. Navas showed great confidence to catch headers from Fiorentina defenders Germán Pezzella and Almamy Touré, though he was nearly beaten by a Berardi free-kick in the 27th minute. That effort was curled into the side netting.
Berardi would be the centre of attention again in the 62nd minute. Lucas Tousart’s header from a Chiesa free-kick bounced into the Inter net, but not before the referee blew his whistle for an apparent penalty. VAR confirmed that Tousart had been shoved by Inter midfielder André Gomes, and so Berardi had the chance to put us 2-1 ahead from 12 yards out.
Domenico had been flawless from the spot last season, but he missed his only previous penalty in this campaign – at Chievo in November. That was perhaps on his mind, as a nervy drive down the middle of Navas’ goal was easily beaten away by the Costa Rican. We had blown it.
Not content with denying us a goal, Gomes proceeded to give us another proverbial kick in the balls on 68 minutes. The skilful Portuguese midfielder collected the ball from Marcelo Brozovic in the middle of our half. He then cut past Tonali before unleashing a 20-yard howitzer that found the top-right corner of a forlorn Lafont’s net! Now it was 2-1, but to Inter!
We now had to do everything we could to prevent the Nerazzurri from storming into a greater lead. Biraghi showed real spirit in the 78th minute, committing to a crunching tackle on Gabriel Barbosa that stopped the Brazilian striker from latching onto Brozovic’s long pass into our box. The ball fell to Martínez, whose first-time strike was clawed behind by Lafont. Attention then turned to Barbosa, who’d hurt his groin in that tackle and was quickly substituted.
Despite losing a man who’d scored 17 league goals for them this season, Inter did not let up. Lafont needed to be at his very best to prevent Nainggolan and then Luiz Felipe from scoring in injury time. Sadly, Alban’s efforts would be for nought, as we could not pull one goal back, let alone the two we needed.
The final whistle confirmed our second home league defeat of the season, and a second consecutive league title for Inter. After almost a decade of a certain team in black-and-white sweeping all before them in Italian football, we now appeared to be in a period of black-and-blue dominance.
1st placed had gone, and now there was a real fear that we wouldn’t even finish 2nd. An own goal from Pescara had given Napoli another win and left them behind us only on head-to-head. Milan were also closing in, having beaten Sassuolo 2-1 to move to within a single point. The four Champions League places were now locked down, which meant Juventus missed out for the second season in a row.
A week after exiting the Europa League Semi Finals against Chelsea, Juve suffered a 2-1 home defeat to Lazio, conceding twice in the final 11 minutes. With even a top-six finish now looking in doubt, the Old Lady’s board dismissed Antonio Conte and placed Paolo Beruatto in caretaker charge for their final two matches.
GENOA vs FIORENTINA (Serie A, Match 37)
Having failed to extend the title race any longer, we now had to focus on holding off Napoli and Milan to finish in 2nd place. While it wouldn’t be a disaster if we came 3rd or even 4th, the extra prize money that came with placing as high as possible would always be welcome.
Our rivals were in action first on the opening weekend. Milan won 3-1 at Verona to push the Mastini closer to relegation, while Napoli edged out Lazio by a single goal at the Olimpico. That meant they both overtook us in the standings and put us under significant pressure to beat Genoa, who were safely in mid-table.
The first half at the Luigi Ferraris was a pretty even affair to start with. Genoa’s young Slovenian goalkeeper Rok Vodisek caught a couple of early headers from Chiesa and Geubbels. At the other end, Lafont made similarly simple work of a header by another home youngster in 19-year-old striker Eddy Salcedo.
Genoa’s best chance came from a 12th-minute free-kick, awarded after their right-winger Yann Karamoh had been brought to ground by Marco Benassi. Iuri Medeiros swung in the set-piece from out right, and midfielder Oscar Hiljemark’s header came back off the bar before Viola right-back Kevin Diks cleared.
The rest of the first half was very scrappy, with three players being booked, including our left-back Biraghi for another cynical trip on Karamoh. The Ivorian-born Frenchman withstood our strong tackling, but his game would end in the 57th minute after he twisted sharply on his ankle.
After a dire period of play, we finally ended the stand-off after 77 minutes. Alessandro Bastoni‘s header from Berardi’s corner delivery was palmed off the line by Vodisek, but the talented centre-half made no mistake from the rebound. His second goal of the season appeared to have got us back to winning ways.
However, Genoa were not willing to concede defeat. They had several equalising attempts before eventually succeeding two minutes from time. Serbian playmaker Sasa Lukic got his head to a deep free-kick from Medeiros and flicked it to Salcedo, who was then tackled by Tonali. Lukic reacted quickly to the rebound, lashing it home for 1-1.
This was the third game in succession in which we had scored the first goal but still not won. Though we did at least take one point away this time, failure to claim all three meant our aspirations of finishing in the top three were now out of our hands.
Inter’s official coronation came in their final home match of the season against Chievo, whom they beat 2-0 before lifting the scudetto. There was a very different atmosphere amongst supporters of Palermo, who were finally consigned to relegation after a 1-0 loss at Atalanta. Verona were down too following their defeat, with either Sampdoria or Empoli joining them in Serie B.
Despite being beaten 2-1 at Bologna, Roma were almost assured of following Lazio into the Europa League. While Juventus were favourites to claim that last continental spot after beating Torino 1-0, they would face pressure on the final weekend from Atalanta, SPAL and Pescara.
FIORENTINA vs PESCARA (Serie A, Match 38)
And so we came to the final weekend. If we were to place in Serie A’s top three for the first time since 1998/1999, we had to beat Pescara on home soil, and hope that either Napoli or Milan slipped up in their games.
Napoli played ahead of us again, and they would not slip up. Goals from Juan Mata and Piotr Zielinski secured a 2-0 home win over Torino, and with it 2nd place. We were now relying on relegated Palermo recording an almighty upset at the San Siro if we were to pip Milan to 3rd.
After three straight matches without winning, I shook my starting XI up. All our loanees were either dropped to the bench or left out altogether, and there was no place for Falcao, who would retire without scoring a single Fiorentina goal. Instead, I gave a full debut up front to an exciting 16-year-old history maker in Alberto Scotta.
Eysseric must have felt like a dinosaur in comparison to Scotta, but 15 goals this season had shown that rumours of the 29-year-old’s demise had been greatly exaggerated. He almost got a 16th after just five minutes, curling a free-kick against the post. Fortunately, Berardi was on it like a flash, driving in just his second goal this season.
Pescara – who needed a win to keep alive their hopes of qualifying for the Europa League – struggled to get into the game after our early opener. Some mistimed tackling on their part didn’t help, as three Delfini players saw yellow cards before we strengthened our advantage.
The excellent Eysseric again played a key role in us going 2-0 up after 45 minutes. His corner was met by the head of Bastoni, who flicked it on for Pezzella to turn in his first and only goal of the campaign. It would also be the 55th and final one we netted in Serie A this season.
Pescara looked to put the result back in doubt five minutes into the second half. Central defender Luca Ceppitelli’s header from a corner by Danish veteran Lasse Schöne didn’t quite beat Lafont, who would hold on to his 19th league clean sheet this term. The Delfini never threatened him again, having been limited to speculative long-range strikes.
In the closing stages, I gave a senior debut to 17-year-old wide forward Michel Cecci, and further substitute appearances to Neri and right-back Simone Morleo. I was certainly giving youth a chance, and Scotta almost took his in the 79th minute. The schoolboy was primed to score a dream debut goal after Vincenzo Fiorillo parried a cross from Berardi, but the keeper recovered to block Alberto’s rebound strike.
It really would’ve been the icing on the cake had Scotta scored, but I was still satisfied with how things had gone for us on the final day. A 2-0 win meant we signed off in style and finished on 73 points – Fiorentina’s highest ever points tally in the top division.
There was no miracle at the San Siro. Milan were far too strong for Palermo, demolishing them 4-0 to take 3rd place. We had to make do with 4th, which was still a two-place improvement on the previous two campaigns. I would definitely have taken that at the start of the season.
Sampdoria were relegated after losing 1-0 at home to Verona – a result that gave a reprieve to Empoli, who’d been beaten 2-0 by Roma. 5th place was now Roma’s… but what about 6th?
Juventus needed a home win against Bologna to retain a Europa League spot… but they predictably fluffed their lines, losing 2-0 against a team that had nothing to play for. SPAL then missed the chance to overtake them when they fell 2-1 against Lazio.
That meant it all boiled down to the final match – Atalanta vs Inter. If Atalanta took at least a point, they would be in Europe, but Juve would qualify instead if the champions could get one last victory.
Juve’s hopes were raised when Sime Vrsaljko put Inter 1-0 up after 22 minutes. That was how the scoreline stayed until the 83rd minute, when Ilicic popped up to stab in an equaliser and send the home fans at the Atleti Azzurri d’Italia wild. Atalanta had taken 6th place, and Juventus were out of Europe for the first time in a decade!
We’ve got Champions League football; our greatest foes have got nothing! I’d say that was a very good season all round for the Viola, even if we did completely mess things up in the Europa League.
My next post will be the 2020/2021 season review. After that, there’ll be a short break for the Christmas holidays. I’ll then kick off my fourth season at some point late next week, as I finally get the chance to take this great club back into the greatest competition on the continent.
“Forza viola!”
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