Fiorentina are once again Conference League finalists.
But which Champions League semi-finals, when there is the magic of the Conference? Yes, because the city festivals are organized (the “Procession of the Holy Blood” of Bruges on Ascension Day, which falls on May 9) have forced the match to be brought forward to Wednesday, traditionally reserved in sporting calendars for the biggest European challenges. But the holy holiday will be bitter in the Belgian city, at least for local football fans: after a race leading the score for a long time but increasingly suffering, Bruges fell in the final with the penalty awarded by Nzola and converted by Beltran, with Terracciano protagonist of an absolutely decisive save on Vanaken with time up for Fiorentina’s passage to the final in Athens.
A sweaty match with that aura of ordinary tragedy as only Italian Fiorentina can do. After the last-second victory in the first leg, the Viola saw their advantage disappear already in the first quarter of the match. She dances dangerously behind with various inattentions, suffers the aggressiveness and harshness of the tackles from the opponents, but shaken by the goal conceded, she quickly raises the pace and accumulates opportunity after opportunity. At the end of the match he will add three posts hit (we are at 31 for the season), two of which were scored by an excellent but very unlucky Kouame. Posts that are part of an enormous mass of shots towards the goal, twenty-one shots for a total of 2.59 cumulative xG, but only two will hit the target (including penalty): only a partial representation of the emotional rollercoaster that the team can be of Italian.
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The individual rather than structural weaknesses were about to cost Fiorentina dearly. Three minutes of madness entirely of the Argentine brand, between minutes 20 and 23: Martinez Quarta who sees the full-back De Cuyper parade next to him, skilled in the offensive insertion which makes it 1-0, Nico Gonzalez who launches in 1vs1 against Mignolet kicks him weakly, Beltran misses the target on the tap-in. But the number 9 will then have the opportunity to redeem a complicated and opaque match and atone for the sins of the Albiceleste origin, glacially transforming the maximum free kick awarded to the Viola, for what is to date the most important goal in the former River’s not simple season.
Bruges, given the disadvantage they had gained in the first leg, had approached the match in a proactive manner: many players moving forward, lots of movement and position changes to remove references, building the ball with the idea of coming out cleanly and from the pressing of a Fiorentina who were initially very tight. They are not pounding rhythms, but it was enough to expose the individual difficulties of the Viola back line, and to hit them with what would later be the only opportunity created by the Belgians at least until injury time. But despite the presence of good individuals, the ability shown to withstand the impact and even a certain blessing from Lady Luck, Bruges appeared – as in the first leg – largely inferior to Fiorentina, not so much in terms of technical quality but on a collective level, in the ability to apply oneself in the various phases of the game and move as a collective on the pitch. Fiorentina, despite Bonaventura’s absence and Gonzalez’s less than brilliant performance, proved stronger, more organized and tougher than their opponents at the final moment.
After Prague, Athens. Second consecutive European final for Italiano’s team, who now have another opportunity to bring a title back to Florence after more than twenty years and close – he and a group that will presumably see numerous changes in the summer – this three-year period in the best possible way. A chance to save a season that in many respects slipped out of hand with naivety and moments of self-sabotage, but also to crown a difficult job carried out starting from the rubble and which has, like it or not, brought Fiorentina back to a European dimension.