The national phase of the Serie C play-offs begins tomorrow. The third-placed teams in the regular season and the winner of the Italian Cup are added to the six teams that passed the group stage for a total of ten teams. These are home and away matches, in the event of a draw the best ranked team advances, i.e. the top seed that will play the return leg at home. There are no overtime or penalties. Kick-off at 8.30pm.
Three minutes after the draw was made official, Fabio Gatti’s mobile phone already went haywire. At the headquarters of the Atalanta of the future, the under 23 team that will face Catania tomorrow evening, the organization phase of the match had already begun. Gatti is the sporting director of the Bergamo team, but he is also a former Catania player. He was one of Riccardo Gaucci’s protégés in the 2002-3 season which went down in history due to the Martinelli case.
Do you remember the disqualified Siena player lined up against Catania who effectively “saved” the Serie B title thanks to the great battle of Luciano and Riccardo Gaucci who did not give in to the Palace’s logic? Here too, that year was memorable more for the Gaucci’s iron will to safeguard Catania and the city of Catania from an abysmal wrong. So much so that Carraro, then FIGC president, was eventually forced to accept an expansion of the number of teams up to 24. Gatti, a product of Perugia, played 23 matches, 18 as a starter despite constant changes of coach, then had an interesting career (also with Napoli, not only in Perugia) entering the national Under 21 team. In that season managed by Gaucci, Zeoli played 31 games and all as a starter.
Cats and the scent of Catania
Now the two will be opponents, but there is great respect for what they built in Catania. Gatti was “close” to Catania when the red-blue club, the last with the registration number 11,700, signed Luca Moro from Padova in August 2021 thanks to an intuition from Maurizio Pellegrino. The two spoke for a long time and Gatti, Sogliano’s collaborator at the time, advised Moro to accept the Catania experience. Before the deletion of all statistical data, Moro had scored 21 goals in 28 games…
Watch out for Cissè
Beyond this connection with the Rossazzurri’s history, Atalanta Under 23 is a team of young runners. But not only. Pure talents. Like the tip Cissè, originally from Guinea. What numbers… In the championship 18 games and 6 goals, in the play offs two games and as many goals. In the first team three times on the bench, in the Europa League he played one minute in mid-December against the Polish Rakow in place of Muriel. In midfield, Leonardo Mendicino also has one minute in the Europa League and one in Serie A, a sign that he has often been called upon to train in the first team. Then he counts 16 matches in Serie C. Without neglecting the right midfielder, Cortinovis, 6 minutes in the Europa League, regular starter in Serie C.
The Bergamo team – fifth in the regular season in group A – often play with the 3-5-2, with this formation they immediately eliminated Trento led by former Rossazzurri player Francesco Baldini in the first round with a clear 3-1 in the play offs. comeback. Pay attention to the running of the fifths, Palestra and Ceresoli, to the insertions from the defense by Bonfanti, who headed the score to make it 1-1 against Trento. Examples of how this team runs to never end and not only because of the very low average age.
Lower the pace
Catania will have to impose their own pace, reducing the “gears” of their opponents especially tomorrow evening and then focusing on the Massimino effect. Atalanta’s youth team plays in front of a few hundred spectators. Facing an away match with 20,000 opposing fans pushing Catania will not be easy.
The coach of the Rossazzurri’s next opponents is Francesco Modesto – born in 1982, originally from Crotone – who as a player played a season and a half in Serie B in Palermo from 2002 to 2004, but as a coach he was also taken into consideration by Grella and therefore from Catania who then, at the start of the current year, turned to Tabbiani. His current staff includes Giorgio Frezzolini, a former Inter player, as goalkeeping coach, who spent a season in Trapani in 1996-97 under the orders of Ivo Iaconi who also passed through the Rossazzurri.
