– Of Federico Castiglioni
Fiorentina are back in the Italian Cup final after nine years.
– Cremonese needed a company or maybe something more to overturn this match, despite Fiorentina not missing some crush in the last few weeks. For the Viola, strong in their double advantage and an overwhelming technical superiority, a calm and risk-free management of the match would have been enough. It will go according to this last score, a game with rare flashes that placidly allows the lilies to reach Inter in the final;
– Too much time taken by the Grigiorossi to trigger themselves, raise the pace, put some apprehension on the opponent. At the moment, not even Dessers’ entrance at halftime shakes an extremely passive Cremonese, careful not to leave margins but reduced to waiting for a mistake by the Tuscans that never comes. Net of the technical gap, you may have weighed in the minds of Ballardini’s men the next match against Verona, who knows a lot about the last train to try to stay in Serie A;
– The motivations of the Fiorentina, for which the cup front is an absolute priority and there is a desire to seize the opportunity to bring home a trophy after more than twenty years. It is no coincidence that the Italian takes a calculated risk and “save” the distrusted Amrabat and Quarta, to appear polished at the final in Rome. His team competes in management, pushing without exaggerating, containing without risk. A test that was not exciting in terms of pace but of discrete lucidity, reassuring especially after the comeback suffered by Monza and the psychodrama touched against Lech Poznan;
– The public setting of the Franchi is splendid, whose sold out perhaps could have allowed the Railway curve to be left open, a sector that remained closed for logistical reasons. If the game wasn’t the most enjoyable, it was the home supporters, who smell the finals and are hungry for victories. The Viola, stopped in the semi-final by Juventus last year, have not reached the Italian Cup final since 2014, that of the murder of Ciro Esposito then won by Napoli. The trophy has been missing from the Lily showcase since 2001: Captain Rui Costa lifted it, Mancini was on the bench and Lele Adani in defense;
– A mention in terms of individual performance deserves it dodo: the Brazilian full-back is perhaps really the only one not to settle down to the staid rhythms of the match, always keeping his foot on the gas and resulting in a thorn in the side for Cremonese’s pressure mechanisms. In a match where the only real risk for Fiorentina could have been to drop too low and shut down, the former Shakhtar put quantity and quality into keeping his teammates awake, giving the right solutions in multiple areas of the pitch.