Scattered considerations after Basel-Fiorentina (1-3 aet) — Sportellate.it

After thirty-three years, Fiorentina is back to playing for a European final.

– Massimo Marianella’s liberating scream at the goal of Barak maybe it won’t sound very good to those who aren’t Fiorentina fans, but it well represents the emotional state of an entire square at that moment. At the end of a difficult, painful, very long and in certain moments appearing bewitched match, the marking of the Czech midfielder is not only worth a ticket to that Prague capital of his native land, but rather allows Viola to return to being among the protagonists of European football, a thirty-three years since that double UEFA Cup final lost against Juventus;

– Fiorentina in Basel play a complicated game in a hot stadium. Blocked on a tactical level, with an opponent who re-proposes the closed and wait-and-see score of the first leg, blocked on a mental level due to the enormous emotional weight given by this match. The first half hour is marked by a series of even trivial technical errors, children of the tension that the Viola seem to struggle to shake off. To straighten out the game and keep a bar that fluctuates a lot straight, the key players of Italiano will have to take the helm, the true souls of the lily team;

– There are three essential helmsmen of the lily buccaneer: Nico Gonzalez, Jack Bonaventura and Captain Biraghi. The scorecard speaks for the first, with two goals on the scoresheet in Fiorentina’s darkest moment, or when in the half hour everything was still at a standstill and the negative result of the first leg weighed like a ton. And when, twenty from the end, the Argentine found the gap in the entrenchment of the Swiss with a paw in the area, who got back on par with a beautiful goal (and stained with lily naivety) by Amdouni. For Bonaventura speaks a technical leadership contest in the middle of the field, in moving the waters of a cumbersome dribble that betrayed a frightened team, with many lunges, finishes and insertions that undermined Basel’s security. Finally, for Biraghi, who enters the scoresheet with an assist from a corner for Viola’s first goal, after a shaky start against the insidious counterattacks by Basel, speaks of a game of enormous forward thrust, characterized by a notable finishing precision not so often rewarded by peers;

– Fiorentina wins in the end in a dirty way, to well represent a match lived on the wire. She scores from a corner and two scrums in the box, where she’s quicker to strike than her opponents. That of the “dirty” goals was a bit of a worry for Viola di Italiano, often capable of planting himself close to the opponent’s area as in this match, even of creating chances for repetitions, but lacking in the decisive leap. And how much the flashes weigh at the right moment has been well seen, in over 130 minutes the Viola conceded goals from practically the only shot conceded while where the Basel goalkeeper Hitz exalted himself several times, with particular fury towards the unfortunate Jovic (entered overtime due to a phased Cabral);

– There are five games left to play for Fiorentina this season. Three are in the championship, and are now worth what they are worth; the other two are the Coppa Italia and Conference League finals, against Inter in Rome and against West Ham in Prague. At the end of the year there will be 60 matches played. Fiorentina have made many mistakes in this complicated year. In some matches he amazed, in others he disappointed, in still others like this one he simply replied present. But now he has the chance to make history. And maybe, let’s say maybe not wanting to take away anyone’s merits, the credit goes to his coach, who came second from a team taken to Serie A and saved by newly promoted, to a team back from far too many struggles not to relegate. Congratulations to Vincenzo Italianand to his Fiorentina.