3 to 2, daring, but exultant with energy. Three goals for the Viola, all from players who came from difficult moments: Sottil opens with a curling kick of rare beauty, then there is the pearl from Belotti, who has been searching for a goal of great skill for the Viola for some time. And in the end, to seal the round victory over Bruges which gives us hope for the return to Belgium, Nzola’s goal which then and there hits the post in the scuffle in the area (which if it ended like this would be yet another unfortunate missed goal for a wood) and then reiterates it into the net for the final victory.
The Viola group is on him in an instant to celebrate the Angolan in a celebration that makes the photographers and fans in the stands happy and, last but not least, Commisso who came from the States to watch the match in the grandstand. Once the joy has died down and the spirits have calmed down, it’s time for analysis, for questions: but is this really like many, many (us included) we say in recent weeks, a team at the end of its cycle, an exhausted group, in need of being re-founded? But how can such a lively group be so, never tamed and not by a match, which knows how to fight vigorously and react to adverse events, such a united group that soothes and heals even its most fragile elements by helping them to get out of the shackles, think right in Sottil who was long awaited and finally appeared in excellent form, so much so that he scored in the last two matches. Or think of Belotti, with Bruges helped by the whole team to do well, and of Nzola embraced with true and sincere joy when he resolved a match as important as this Conference semi-final first leg.
Seen in this way, the Viola group, starting from its coach, doesn’t seem so exhausted after all and consumed by having to completely re-establish it starting from Italian. Given tonight’s match, expressing a doubt seems legitimate to us. Perhaps it is useful to keep the best of this group and on those, even together with this coach, build a bigger and stronger Fiorentina with more important ambitions, since throwing the baby out with the bathwater is always a mistake. The adamantine spirit of this group must be protected so that it can constitute the strong nucleus, the hard core, for Fiorentina in the near future.
Questions, doubts, quick reflections after an unexpected 3-2 in the predictions and matured in a less than perfect match, indeed not without the usual flaws that characterize the Viola team, such as conceding a goal from an opponent’s counterattack just when Bruges were down to ten men. However, the conditions ahead of the Belgian trip on May 8th are excellent, as are the chances of reaching the final in Athens at this point.
