Even the faint flame of hope went out after just three minutes, with Tessmann’s goal. Palermo’s championship stops in Venice. And rightly so. The Rosanero team played with dignity but the difference between the two teams was clear, both at home and away. And also in the championship.
Hope was a right of the players and the fans. But reality must be accepted, it was unthinkable to imagine the metamorphosis of a team that had some flashes for 38 games but demonstrated little personality, little play, an often deficient athletic condition and an abnormal number of injuries.
Mignani was not entirely convincing in his choices for this double semi-final, but he is certainly not responsible for what is not a failure but resembles one. Compared to last year there was progress (the objective was salvation) but the initial assumptions were very different.
Corini almost never convinced, Mignani however arrived too late and he didn’t have the courage or the ability to make the revolution, more than half of the workforce didn’t play as they should and could. And now rebuilding a team almost from scratch will not be easy. But we’ll think about it later.
Today the image remains of a team that tried but was not up to the task. Vulnerable in defense, in midfield – where Mignani deployed one man less hoping for a sudden rebirth of Insigne (largely the worst) – and not even very lucky when Segre’s header saved by Joronen could have changed the mood and the address of a marked race.
After Candela’s 2-0 the light went out. The revolution experienced in the second half (a 4-2-4 that couldn’t be more offensive and unbalanced) was just a move of desperation that didn’t change the course of the match. And now it is already the future. With many changes in sight also in the technical staff.
VENICE: Joronen 7.5; Idzes 6.5, Svoboda 7, Sverko 6.5 (from 23′ st Altare sv); Candela 7, Tessmann 7.5, Lella 6.5 (from 16′ st Ellertsson 6.5), Busio 6.5 (from 35′ st Jajalo sv), Zampano 7; Pierini 6.5 (from 16′ st Gytkjaer 6), Pohjanpalo 6 (from 23′ st Olivieri sv).
PALERMO: Pigliacelli 5.5; Graves 5 (from the 1st st Aurelio 5), Lucioni 5, Marconi 5 (from the 1st st Nedelcearu 5); Diakité 6, Segre 5.5, Ranocchia 5.5, Di Mariano 6; Insigne 4 (from the 11th minute Di Francesco sv), Brunori 5 (from the 16th minute MancuI know sv); Soleri 5.5 (from 31′ st Traoré 6).
Pigliacelli 5.5: Now the long discussion will begin, could Tessmann’s shot have been taken? It is a ‘twin’ goal to the one scored in the first leg by Pierini at Desplanches. It can be saved but it is certainly not a ‘duck’, we have seen much worse mistakes in the Champions League. Pigliacelli experiences a bad evening, when Venezia attacks the ‘bullets’ whistle at him from a short distance away. He performs a small miracle on Busio at 1-0. Then he makes a half-mistake by letting a ball slip away but then makes up for it with a good save.
Graves 5: Looking in perspective, we can say that this end of the season authorizes him to look to the future with discreet prospects but now, in a defense that needs to be rebuilt, he too is dancing. Warning after a few minutes, serious uncertainty at 2-0 and a lot of worry for Zampano who often dominates him. He comes out at halftime.
(from 1st st Aurelio) 5: Insufficient like all his teammates. But what could we expect from a player who has been out of action for a while and who enters with a compromised game?
Lucioni 5: What a struggle trying to limit the damage… He suffers from athletic and age limitations, Venezia has strong and fast people in front of him and he flounders on many occasions. As always he does not spare himself in terms of commitment but this cannot be enough. He had dreamed of yet another promotion on the verge of the finish line of his career, perhaps without that long injury things could have gone better.
Marconi 5: He works like crazy too. In the playoffs he spent more energy than in the entire championship and he too – like Lucioni – played this match with the stability of someone who takes a gondola on the open sea. He also comes out at half-time to allow the formation to be changed in an unscrupulous way.
(from 1st st Nedelcearu) 5: As with Aurelio, he participates in the defeat without specific responsibilities. Venezia has already pulled the handbrake and doesn’t want to attack but the defense is still in trouble, like in the first half.
Diakite 6: One of the liveliest, he beats the wing back and forth, helps out in coverage but above all tries to push to compensate for Insigne’s ‘absence’.
Secrets 5.5: He runs and fights but is always in difficulty against opponents who, in his area, have numerical superiority. He is foul and nervous. He honors the shirt until the end and comes close to scoring a possible equalizer with his specialty, the header: but Joronen stifles his scream with a wonderful save.
Frog 5.5: He should be the most talented man in midfield but instead he accomplishes little. He too is suffering in the containment phase, he doesn’t have flashes up front that match his abilities.
Di Mariano 6: Among the few to bring home a decent pass. His game is a continuous duel with Candela, he is probably the one who plays the most balls and covers the most kilometres. At the start of the match he tried to force Candela onto the defensive but as the minutes passed the opponent (and all of Venezia) showed superiority on all fronts.
Insigne 4: In just one game there is the concentration of a failed season. It is almost never seen, except for the way he wastes a potential counterattack in the first half. Really zero contribution. He leaves the field at the start of the second half, 55 impalpable minutes. The vote would be lower but raging makes no sense.
(from the 11th st Di Francesco) sv: After three minutes he made more meters and more things than Insigne. He enters the field well when the game is virtually over, carried away by a repressed nervous energy. He wasn’t a protagonist in the playoffs but it certainly wasn’t his fault.
Brunori 5: Mignani makes him play as an anomalous ‘attacking midfielder’, as happened at home against Sampdoria. But Venezia is something else, physical players and tactical harmony. Brunori still has a few opportunities left to try and invent a goal. He isn’t particularly inspired but it’s not like he gets clean balls… Then he gets hurt and throws in the towel, with his spirits in the doldrums.
(from 16′ st Mancuso) sv: Come in because Brunori gets hurt. But the game hasn’t made sense for a while.
Soleri 5.5: As in the first leg, he crashes into a wall of defenders as big and tall as him. He creates sparks, runs back and forth, makes a nice pass in the first half to trigger a counterattack, ‘chews’ a shot in the second half. In short, nothing noteworthy but the usual generosity.
(from 31′ st Traoré) 6: The goal of the flag, in the final, is the result of his initiative with a final shot deflected by a defender. The match was already at the end credits but at least it honors its disappointing championship with a flash.
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