At Mapei 70 minutes of football in August and 20 of Riccardo Saponara.
– Low rhythms, very low at the Mapei Stadium, for a game that nobody really cares about. At least until, in the 71st minute, Berardi equalized Cabral’s advantage from a penalty. And there a Fiorentina up to that moment staid and management, with the head physiologically in Prague, indulges in a competitive outburst to lock down the match by overwhelming the neroverdi, who also get two red cards;
– Little to ask for Fiorentina, on the eve of the Conference League Final against West Ham. We have to try to snatch an eighth place that through UEFA could be worth qualifying for the Conference, Turin permitting. Nothing to ask for Sassuolo, without victories since April and with the season already largely archived. A terribly boring match comes out of it, especially in the first half, where only a couple of flashes from Cabral (post) try to give a competitive value to the match;
– The penalty episode unlocks the game emotionally, and who else Riccardo Saponara, as a substitute, could she take the chair in a race with after-work rhythms but become nervous? The number 8 prepares, in addition to the assist for the 1-3 by Gonzalez, the wonderful goal of the advantage of delpierana memoria: stop with his back to the goal and a right kick towards the far post, unstoppable for the young Russo. Had it been Saponara’s last in purple, it would be a nice farewell. But there is still a game to be played;
– The real concern after the race for Italiano could be the infirmary, in particular for Nico Gonzalez (entered the field in the 57th minute): the Argentine, already hit hard by the Sassuolo defenders, slammed violently against the post on the occasion of his goal despite regularly ending the match. Waiting for the medical reports, a bit the emblem of a Fiorentina team that over the course of the long season has always had the problem of knowing how to manage themselves, both with their legs and with their heads;
– The Viola archive the championship with a victory awaiting the result of Turin-Inter: in case of victory the grenades would overtake them in the standings thanks to direct matches, otherwise they will be eighth place. Which, as mentioned, is worth nothing but could be worth the last place for Europe: there are pending decisions on Juventus that may not upset the standings, but still cause the assignments of places in the cups to be postponed. However, even in this sense, for Fiorentina the main road passes through the final in Prague.
The article Scattered considerations after Sassuolo-Fiorentina (1-3) comes from Sportellate.it.