After a good first half in a Franchi full of fans and enthusiasm, Fiorentina fell asleep and conceded two silly goals that jeopardize the passage to the final. Now an away win will be needed, also to plug some cracks shown so far by Vincenzo Italiano’s boys.
– Head problems. Or, as they’re called in the Twitter bubble, “psychodrama”. Fiorentina have once again demonstrated that they have the wrong approach to matches in which they find themselves in the lead: it happened in the second leg against Lech Poznan and it happened today in the second half. After a good first part of the match, the Italian team lifted their hands from the handlebars scoring a goal in which everything was wrong, from the timing of pressing to the exits of the defense, followed by a marking that came from a harmless free-kick in which the Viola defense was surprised with a basic scheme: ball at the far post, header tower and goals;
– Nico González in serata no. If one of your best players, if not your best in technique, doesn’t get a play right it’s hard to win games. Today Nico proved to be more willing than in the last outings but still too imprecise and hazy when it came to concluding or giving the last pass. I remain convinced that employing it on the left neutralizes it compared to when starting from the right, from where it has more solutions to develop the action. If Fiorentina wants to make sense of this part of the season, they must go through Nico Gonzalez who – however – cannot be the one seen tonight;
– Augustin? Do you still play? I have to admit my ignorance on the matter and reveal that I had somewhat lost track of this player since he left the Leipzig however it was a pleasant surprise to know that it might still make sense for him to play in a European competition. The Frenchman confirmed the good memories I had about him: technique in packs – the stoppage in the first half is proof of this – always sensible movements to move the line and also a lot of sacrifice for the team, so much so that Vogel replaced him about fifteen minutes from the end after an excellent performance;
– Dodo’s leadership. Increasingly in control of the right wing and the locker room, the Brazilian full-back was an inexhaustible source of play for Fiorentina tonight. In the first half he looked more for a one-two with Iconic or the filter ball of Bonaventure while in the second he set up on his own with solitary conductions to converge towards the center of the field. His team mates looked for him insistently and Dodo was able to communicate well with his wing mate Ikoné or with the midfielders who find a solid foothold in the Brazilian, capable of never stopping the race and always dictating a pass to remove them from situations difficult;
– Underestimating the opponent. We all cheered when we ended up in Basel’s draw but, as happened with Lech, the biggest mistake was thinking we had already won even before playing. Basel came to Florence to play their game and didn’t give up on closing down to restart, in the first half, and putting up more maneuvered actions in the second, when Fiorentina dropped a lot. In European competitions you can never take anything for granted and we hope that tonight’s lesson will serve as a warning for the return when you won’t be able to pull the plug even at the ninetieth anniversary.