I’ll tell you something about this Fiorentina team: when we can get ourselves on a roll, we are very difficult to stop. We enter the final three months of the 2021/2022 Serie A season in an incredible vein of league form. Unfortunately for us, Napoli are themselves proving very difficult to beat.
I’ve got six league matches for you in this latest chapter, and there’s no doubt about which is the biggest. If both teams can continue their excellent runs, Fiorentina vs Napoli at the Artemio Franchi on 10 April – the day before my 32nd birthday – could well decide the destiny of this season’s scudetto.
FIORENTINA vs UDINESE (Serie A, Match 28)
At the start of this season, I never expected this match to be a big one in the title race. But here we were, on a 14-match unbeaten run in the league, looking to put pressure on leaders Napoli by beating another surprise contender.
Udinese were continuing to defy expectations that they would eventually crumble. The Zebrette had twice fallen behind at the Olimpico in their midweek fixture against Roma, but an 89th-minute winner from Antonin Barak had moved them to within a point of us. If they could record back-to-back away victories, they would replace us in 2nd.
This was a match we really couldn’t afford to lose, and the players knew that. After seven minutes, Jordan Veretout hoisted a long ball over Udinese’s defence to find captain Federico Chiesa in space. Chiesa dribbled into the penalty area and then squared the ball to Mario Mandzukic, whose close-range tap-in made him our first player to score 10 goals this season… in March.
Another seven minutes passed, and then we doubled our lead. Our vice-captain Lucas Tousart was tripped by French compatriot Matteo Guendouzi, gifting us a free-kick in a dangerous position. Federico Bernardeschi swung it towards the far post, where Sandro Tonali shrugged off his marker Paulo Oliveira to bury it into the net.
Though Chiesa later missed a chance to get his 10th goal of the campaign, our other Federico was on fire. When a poor clearance from Barak rebounded off Tonali and into the Zebrette area, Bernardeschi pounced to hammer us into a 3-0 lead after 31 minutes. Bernie’s weekend got even better four minutes later, when he volleyed in a byline cross from Chiesa to leave our tifosi in ecstasy!
In the biggest match of their league season, the shellshocked Zebrette had fallen 4-0 behind before half-time! There was surely no way back for them, though Guendouzi and Barak each tried to add some respectability to the scoreline before – and after – the break.
Unsurprisingly, we cruised through most of the second half. Even when Udinese did get a consolation in the 76th minute – through Barak’s header from a corner by Rodrigo De Paul – I had no reason to panic. The game was effectively over already.
When Chiesa was pushed by Esteban Rolón in the 85th minute, he had another hit double figures for the season. However, he would be denied by an excellent penalty save from Samir Handanovic. Five minutes later, substitute Riccardo Sottil was denied his first senior Fiorentina goal, having been caught aside upon bundling a Cristiano Biraghi cross into the net.
We did, though, complete a five-star performance in injury time. A delightful ball from left-back Biraghi found right-back Almamy Touré, who too was narrowly prevented from celebrating his first goal in Viola colours. Handanovic’s angled save was not the most convincing, and the ball bounced across his box before Dusan Vlahovic completed a 5-1 Fiorentina win!
I was speechless. That was a truly wonderful performance – so much so that SEVEN of our players were named in Serie A’s Team of the Week. Amongst those was Tousart, who had twisted his knee late on and thus could not start our next game at Roma.
SPAL’s three players were there courtesy of a 4-1 win in their relegation tussle at Genoa. I was rather more interested in events in Empoli, where Antonino La Gumina had inflicted a shock 1-0 defeat on Napoli – their second of the Serie A season, and their first in 19 games! We were now only three points off the lead!
Juventus also had a day to forget, letting a 4-1 lead slip at Chievo before drawing 4-4. That left us nine points clear of the 4th-placed Bianconeri, who were now under some pressure from Milan following the Rossoneri’s 2-0 win against Sassuolo.
YOUTH UPDATE
This year’s youth intake had to be my most underwhelming yet. We’ve got a bunch of negative personalities amongst our latest crop of Under-16s, and at first glance, there’s hardly anyone who could become first-teamers.
I suppose Duccio Matteoni has a chance, albeit a very slim one. He’s casual and aggressive (a contradiction in terms?), and we’ve already got at least two young goalkeepers of higher potential.
Speaking of promising keepers, Filippo Turci was having a fine season on loan with Serie C side Monopoli, with his 16 clean sheets being the most in any of the three divisions at that level. Another exciting talent from our 2018/2019 intake was inside-forward Stefano Rega, who’d so far scored five goals in Serie B for his loan club Ternana.
In terms of the 2019/2020 intake, attackers Michel Cecci and Alberto Scotta were both scoring regularly at Under-20s level. We also had the slightly younger Damiano Fioretti, who was amongst the Under-18s league’s top scorers in his first full season at that level. I wouldn’t be too surprised if Fiorentina’s attack was dominated by homegrown talents in a few years’ time.
ROMA vs FIORENTINA (Serie A, Match 29)
A difficult run of fixtures continued in the Olimpico against Roma, who were the only team to have inflicted a home defeat on us in this Serie A season. That was under the management of Luis Enrique, who struggled for consistency in the Italian capital and lost his job three months later. New coach Thorsten Fink had overseen a poor start to his Giallorossi reign as he battled to keep them in European contention.
While Roma were low on confidence, I had my own problems. After 142 consecutive league starts, Alban Lafont sustained a groin injury and had to sit this match out. That meant second-choice goalkeeper André Onana made his long-awaited Serie A debut.
This season had seen Tonali emerge as a key man in the Fiorentina midfield, and he notched up his fourth goal of the campaign to put us ahead after just four minutes. Lorenzo Pellegrini’s headed clearance on the edge of the Roma box was hoovered up by Sandro, who drove in a fantastic strike from the ‘D’.
Tonali could’ve scored again in the 12th minute, but his volley from Chiesa’s lofted free-kick was palmed off the line by Roma goalkeeper Etrit Berisha. That was as close as Chiesa came to making a significant impact on this match. Our skipper’s game was up by the 29th minute, when he broke his toe and needed to be replaced with Alexandru Măţan.
Măţan had been on the pitch from barely a minute when he helped to send us 2-0 up. He received an excellent pass from Bernardeschi and knocked it past Giallorossi right-back Alessandro Florenzi before playing in Mandzukic, who thrashed it home from 20 yards out! Mario’s 200th career league goal was one of his most impressive!
Berisha denied Bernardeschi a third Fiorentina goal before the halfway point of a competitive match that soon took on a rather scrappy look. The referee handed out no fewer than six bookings – three to each team – between the 43rd and 59th minutes.
When the football resumed, Onana produced a couple of saves to keep Roma’s wide attackers Diogo Gonçalves and Stephan El Shaarawy off the scoresheet. A home goal could’ve been a tide-turner then, but by the 76th minute, the contest was effectively over. Viola centre-back Daniele Rugani showed once again how dangerous he could be from set-pieces when he headed in an excellent drifting corner from Valentin Eysseric.
I would’ve been very happy with a 3-0 win and a clean sheet for Onana… but Roma made sure they had the last say on proceedings. Eysseric scuffed a poor clearance to Pellegrini, and the ball soon found substitute forward Manor Solomon, who swerved in a 25-yard beauty. Of the many long-range goals we’d seen in this match, I had to admit that was probably the best.
With Udinese having only drawn 0-0 against Milan, we extended our lead on 3rd to six points. However, Napoli remained top by a three-point margin, having returned to ominous form with a 4-0 crushing of lowly Spezia.
Juventus hit another bump on their rocky road to what they hoped would’ve been a first scudetto since 2019. Marco Rose’s side were beaten 2-1 at home late on by Atalanta – a result that was surely fatal for those hopes.
While Chiesa’s injury wasn’t necessarily fatal for our hopes, I would rather have not been without my captain’s services for upcoming matches against Inter, Lazio and Napoli. That wasn’t to say I didn’t have faith in Bernardeschi, Eysseric or Măţan out wide. It was just that Chiesa was our most talented attacker, even while still complaining about not being in Paris, and he would be a significant miss.
INTERNATIONAL BREAK
Mid-March marked the start of another international break, and the beginning of a new era for England. Their first matches following the 2022 World Cup qualifying debacle were a couple of marquee friendlies at Wembley against… erm, New Zealand and Nigeria.
Though the FA had now entrusted me with the England job, I wanted to focus on Fiorentina until the summer. I therefore left assistant manager Steve Holland to his own devices, confident that he wouldn’t completely screw things up…
…and he didn’t. England confidently won their first friendly 5-0 against New Zealand, with the big highlight coming when Liverpool right-back Trent Alexander-Arnold scored directly from a corner. They then tonked Nigeria by the rather less convincing scoreline of 5-1. That’ll give me something to build on when I start my new job for real in a few months’ time.
Italy also enjoyed a couple of emphatic friendly wins, thanks to a couple of Viola players. Bernardeschi scored twice against Boliva and once against South Korea, with Emerson also finding the net in the latter game.
Despite seeing little action for us recently, centre-back Yesid Gonzalez was recalled by Colombia. The 20-year-old won his second senior cap in a 0-0 draw with Spain, and then received another when Los Cafeteros won 1-0 in Sweden.
For one Fiorentina defender, though, it really was an international break to remember:
You can’t say Kevin Diks didn’t deserve his opportunity for the Netherlands. The right-back had performed very well for us this season, despite usually playing second fiddle to Touré. Diks also excelled on his Dutch debut in a 3-0 win over Paraguay, though his second appearance was a short eight-minute cameo against Switzerland. I’m sure he’ll wear the Oranje jersey with distinction for years to come.
FIORENTINA vs INTERNAZIONALE (Serie A, Match 30)
While we prepared to host the soon-to-be-former champions on Sunday afternoon, Napoli paid a visit to Lazio on Saturday night. Things didn’t go all right for our title rivals, as although Talisca gave them the lead after 56 minutes, a couple of strikes from Divock Origi turned the game in Lazio’s favour.
Victory over Inter would see us go level on points with Napoli, though we’d still trail them on head-to-head. We would have to manage it without either Onana or Touré, who were both on international duty with Cameroon and Mali respectively. Their absences meant Lafont and Diks returned to the side.
The teams’ resident card magnets made sure they got their names in the referee’s notebook quickly. Stand-in Fiorentina captain Tousart collected his ninth booking of the season in the fifth minute, following a trip on Inter’s attacking midfielder Miguel Almirón. Two minutes later, visiting midfielder André Gomes – who’d already seen four red cards this term – bundled Marco Benassi over to collect his fourth yellow.
I wish I had more to say about the first half, but with both teams looking edgy, scoring chances were very hard to come by. Inter’s best came on 14 minutes, when Daniel Arzani headed Matteo Politano’s corner into a grateful Lafont’s hands. At the other end, Keylor Navas was troubled only by a 38th-minute drive from Eysseric.
We started to play with a bit more ambition following the interval, even more so after the Nerazzurri lost Almirón to an ankle ligament injury in the 58th minute. Inter rarely threatened us thereafter, as a strong Fiorentina defence headed by Rugani restricted them to just a hopeless long-range shot from Andrea Pinamonti.
Bernardeschi came on to try and freshen up our attack, and his best scoring opportunity arose ten minutes from the end. He beat a couple of Inter defenders to a deep cross from Emerson, but his header never really had Navas sweating. Mind you, that was nothing compared to a couple of costly late misses from Vlahovic, who took Mandzukic’s spot up front in the closing stages.
After a clever exchange of passes with Bernardeschi in the 88th minute, the young Serbian saw his close-range shot blocked by Navas. The two substitutes linked up again in injury time, only for Vlahovic to volley a cross into the keeper’s hands. Had Dusan converted just one of those efforts, we would surely have been celebrating a huge result in the title race.
One point gained or two points lost? It was too early to tell. Udinese were probably asking themselves the same question after their 2-2 draw at Empoli on Monday night, which meant they couldn’t make any ground on us.
Juventus enjoyed the best weekend out of the top four, winning 2-0 at Torino in their local derby. They remained five points ahead of Milan (who also beat Bologna 2-0) and Lazio, with Inter another three adrift.
A top-six finish was almost certain, while three more wins (at most) would guarantee a return to the Champions League. But having come so far and stayed unbeaten for so long, I was now aiming for an even greater prize.
LAZIO vs FIORENTINA (Serie A, Match 31)
The top three were all in action on Saturday 2 April. The day kicked off with a sensational result for leaders Napoli, who put SEVEN goals past Carpi without reply. That meant the pressure would be firmly on our shoulders when we played our match in Rome later that evening.
A strong run of form after the winter break had helped Rafa Benítez’s Lazio climb back into the top six. There was still some work to do if the Biancocelesti were to qualify for Europe, but with a quality attack, things were looking good for them.
Inside-forward Divock Origi and attacking midfielder Luis Alberto missed a couple of early chances before frontman Borja Mayoral started to threaten. His first effort was blocked by Emerson, and the second went wide, but the third hit the sweet spot after 28 minutes. Luis Alberto sprayed a long ball out left to Origi. As our defence rushed back, the Belgian crossed to Mayoral, whose lethal header broke the deadlock.
That move had started when Lazio’s other wide attacker Dorin Rotariu had stolen the ball off Veretout deep in our half. Veretout tried to equalise in the 33rd minute, but he couldn’t strike Măţan’s square pass cleanly. Fellow midfielder Tonali also wasted a couple of efforts on goal.
Lafont twice had to stop Mayoral from doubling Lazio’s lead just before half-time, and he thwarted the Spaniard again shortly after the restart. While he and the rest of the Viola defence tried to hold firm against the Biancocelesti onslaught, it would be to no avail. When Alban made heavy work of stopping a Luis Alberto free-kick in the 69th minute, 20-year-old defender Nicolò Armini stabbed in the rebound for his first senior goal.
At that point, I said, “Screw it,” and substituted the misfiring Mandzukic for 17-year-old Cecci. The lifelong Viola fan could have netted his first goal for the club after a long clearance from Măţan sent him clean through on goal. Alas, the pressure got to young Michel, who blazed the ball well over Thomas Strakosha’s crossbar.
A disappointing evening for us ended with Lazio scoring a third goal after 84 minutes. Luis Alberto put a corner into our box, and couple of brave interceptions by Benassi could not prevent 35-year-old Lucas Leiva from putting the game to bed. While our performance had not been that poor, the Biancocelesti had still made us look like amateurs.
And with that, our long unbeaten run in Serie A was over. 17 and out.
Saturday’s final game saw Udinese draw 1-1 with Inter – a result that suited neither team. Udinese only made up one point on us, while Inter’s hopes of a third consecutive scudetto were now officially over.
A Cristiano Ronaldo hat-trick inspired Juventus to beat SPAL 4-1 on Sunday. Their main rivals for the fourth Champions League place – Milan – also recorded a three-goal win over Empoli.
FIORENTINA vs NAPOLI (Serie A, Match 32)
And so we came to the big one. Victory at the Franchi against Napoli would move us to within two points of Carlo Ancelotti’s pacesetters. Were we to lose, though, we would theoretically have to claw back a nine-point deficit (because of head-to-head) over the final six rounds. Even for a team of our quality, that would surely be too much.
The pressure on this fixture seemed to get to some visiting players early on. Central defender Manuel Akanji and playmaker Amadou Diawara each collected bookings within the first five minutes, and left-back Mário Rui followed suit in the 22nd. Attacking midfielder Talisca did show greater composure in the ninth minute to flick a header towards our goal, but Lafont clutched it to his chest.
I had a reason for concern when Tonali gashed his leg in a 23rd-minute slide tackle on Napoli captain Lorenzo Insigne. Sandro bravely played on, as did Partenopei right-back Elseid Hysaj, who’d hurt his calf early in proceedings. That didn’t stop Hysaj from supplying a couple of troublesome crosses midway through the half for Insigne and Arkadiusz Milik, neither of whom could quite convert them into goals.
Both goalkeepers were kept busy in the closing stages of the first half. Napoli’s Alex Meret stopped a couple of long-distance attempts from Bernardeschi and Berardi after 39 and 45 minutes respectively. In between those saves, Lafont had stopped a couple of efforts from Talisca and Milik.
The match took a potentially significant twist from an away free-kick in the 56th minute. Insigne swung it from the right wing towards Diawara… who pushed Alessandro Bastoni as the Fiorentina defender attempted to nod it clear. The referee subsequently called a foul, and issued Diawara with his second yellow card! We had over half an hour to try and make the breakthrough against 10 men!
It wasn’t until the 75th minute that we started to look like we could win the game. Măţan came off the bench to provide Benassi with a left-wing cross that was headed into Meret’s hands. Disaster then struck four minutes later, when Bernardeschi hurt his groin mid-dribble and pulled up lame. Scotta took his place in our attack as I put my faith in youth.
As it so happened, our next scoring chance – eight minutes from time – came the way of our oldest player. 35-year-old Mandzukic latched onto an incisive pass from Tonali, but Meret pushed his subsequent shot away with so much power that it went out via the opposite touchline for a throw-in.
Two minutes later, substitute right-back Pol Lirola made Napoli’s last bid for glory. His angled effort was awkwardly pushed wide by Lafont, and the ball ended up crossing the touchline again. Meret and Lafont would each come away with their 18th Serie A clean sheets this season, and a potentially thrilling title-decider ended in a damp squib of a 0-0 draw.
Our points deficit on Napoli remained at five points, though that was now effectively six points, because of our inferior head-to-head record against them. At least we remained five ahead of Udinese, who could only manage a 1-1 draw at Chievo. Juventus went level on points with their fellow Bianconeri by staging a late comeback to win 2-1 at Bologna.
Now, let’s have a look at the Bernardeschi situation…
That’s him done for the season, then. At least Patrick Roberts was now almost ready to return to full fitness, nearly four months after breaking his ankle. He would take his place on the bench for our next fixture.
GENOA vs FIORENTINA (Serie A, Match 33)
We were now getting to that point where we could afford very few slip-ups in our pursuit of the scudetto. Next up was a trip to the Luigi Ferraris, where we faced a Genoa side that was desperately battling to stave off the drop.
Not even the sacking of professional hipster Eusebio Di Francesco as manager in favour of former Fiorentina Under-18s coach Fabio Grosso had brought about a change in Genoa’s fortunes. Grosso left us last summer to manage Perugia in Serie B, where he stayed for a few months before getting his big break in the top flight. He had won two of his first 12 matches in charge of the Grifone.
Eddy Salcedo could’ve got Genoa off to a strong start after eight minutes, but the pacey 20-year-old forward’s shot was tipped behind by Lafont. Fiorentina frontman Vlahovic was then thwarted in the 18th minute by home goalkeeper Rok Vodisek, who was unable to keep out our next effort three minutes later. Diks’ delivery from the right cleared the defence and found Eysseric, whose volley made it 1-0.
With a bit more luck, Valentin’s goal might not have been our only one of the first half. In the 26th minute, Vodisek bravely punched Măţan’s right-wing cross away from a lurking Vlahovic, who then hit the post from a difficult angle seven minutes later.
Veretout was next to have a go, seven minutes into the second half. Genoa right-back Ezequiel Schelotto’s clearance of an Emerson corner only found the French mezzala, whose drive was caught by Vodisek. Our right-back got away with an awful headed clearance of his own in the 64th minute, with Diks almost handing opposing captain Oscar Hiljemark an equaliser. Only Alban’s quick reactions spared Kevin’s blushses.
I then went for the kill by bringing Mandzukic and Roberts on from the bench. Mario would go on to put us 2-0 up on 81 minutes, driving the loose ball home after Emerson’s audacious dribble towards goal was halted by Bartosz Salamon. Paddy then tried to kill the game off six minutes later, but the crossbar cruelly denied him what would’ve been a dream goal – from Jordan’s through-ball – after so long out.
The thin margins between a comfortable win and a nervy finish became evident in stoppage time. Hiljemark’s rocket from a deflected Davide Santon centre pulled one goal back for Genoa in the second of four additional minutes. Thankfully, they couldn’t find another in the next two, and so we scraped through with our first win in four games.
We were now guaranteed another top-six finish – and Europa League football at worst. With Milan still 10 points behind us in 5th position after beating Torino 1-0, we needed only two more wins to secure a Champions League return.
Juventus were held 1-1 by Pescara, while Udinese saw off SPAL 2-0, but the match I was most interested in was at the San Paolo. I had hoped Bologna would do us a huge favour, but Marko Rog’s 47th-minute strike earned Napoli a 1-0 win. That kept the Partenopei five points clear at the top, with five games remaining.
It looks like this championship race could be going right to the wire. Can we overhaul Napoli’s lead and end my Fiorentina reign in glory, or will we fall short once again? Come back soon for what’s sure to be a dramatic final chapter of “Shades of Deep Purple”.
“Forza viola!”
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