The Viola healed their Cup wounds by beating Sassuolo ever deeper into the abyss of relegation.
Meanwhile, a curious fact: it is the first time in 2024 that Fiorentina has collected two consecutive victories in the championship. He does it in the most difficult and complicated moment of the season, between the semi-final of the Italian Cup (lost) against Atalanta and the European one against Club Bruges. And it does so with another eleven largely restructured by the turnover, necessary due to the importance of the commitments in the cups compared to the objectives in the championship, and at the same time largely manageable due to the caliber of the opponents encountered: first Salernitana last in the standings and now already mathematically relegated , then Sassuolo, increasingly destined to follow the Campania team in the second division.
It’s difficult to get great insights from a match like this, where a Sassuolo team that was extremely covered on the pitch jumps at Fiorentina’s first real attack, with one of Fiorentina’s many high recoveries and Sottil’s swerve that diagonally beats Consigli in the 17th minute. For the entire first half, Italiano’s team controls the situation easily and with a certain torpor, without too much desire or serenity to play higher rhythms (with the exception of a blaze by Parisi that ended up on the crossbar). The Viola blew the cap in the second half, when in the 54th minute yet another seasonal goal from Martinez Quarta (with 8 goals in the league and cups) suddenly changed the game. Thorstvedt’s flash which after three minutes made it 2-1 provoked both the ruthless reaction of the lilies and the total crumbling of a resigned Sassuolo, to say the least. Three goals and a post in 10 minutes given to Ballardini’s men, and the match is already over.
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For Fiorentina, an outburst like this is perhaps the best way to heal the cup wounds, and to regain confidence in view of the next, decisive European match. It had already happened in February, against Frosinone and with the exact same result, but the shock didn’t arrive there (in the following two matches the Viola fell in Bologna and above all they were held to a draw in Empoli). However, pay attention to the standings: the Tuscans, with one game less, currently find themselves back in the cup placement area, catching up with Napoli, who are ahead of them in head-to-head matches. And in the penultimate round there is Napoli-Fiorentina. With Verona, Monza, Cagliari and the recovery of Bergamo on the calendar, Fiorentina, even a little coincidentally, find themselves still in the running even for the Europa League.
Speaking of Frosinone, the home victory against the Ciociari remains the only flash of Ballardini’s management at Sassuolo, in which the three points gained in the three draws against Udinese, Salernitana and even Milan are there to remind us, with the three comebacks suffered, how fragile this team is. 13 goals conceded in the last four games despite an increasingly conservative approach, in a desperate search for security and solidity which instead seem to increasingly fade away with the passing of time. In the final rush, although mathematics is still far from ruling, the neroverdi appear to be the team least eager and capable of holding on to Serie A.
Reiterating that at times the gap between Fiorentina and Sassuolo seemed to be the same as that between a professional team and an amateur team, Among the Viola, Sottil’s performance certainly stands out (second center in the league) as well as the impressive impact of Nico Gonzalez, who replaced the usual Ikoné at half-time. But perhaps the performance most worthy of attention is that of Fabiano Parisi: starting out shy and tense, and not without flaws in the first construction and possession, he grows progressively by revising some of his dormant qualities in jumping the man and in the creation, in finishing or on his own, of scoring opportunities. Something that also often seems to be missing, in terms of men, from the lily manoeuvre. Parisi, a player whose management and adaptation to Florence proved to be problematic to say the least after the excellent things he showed in Empoli, but it is probably still something that Fiorentina will have to start again on today and tomorrow.
2024-04-28 21:23:57
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