ALEXANDRIA. Grigthe 65 points, Como in front of a length: after so many days of waiting, this time the Serie C ranking is final with three days to go. Both teams have the same number of matches played but there is an important fact: Longo’s men have won the last 5 consecutive games, Como instead has collected only 2 wins, a draw and remedied 2 defeats, including the heavy one of yesterday April 14 in Sardinia.
Now, Alexandria is the master of its own destiny: it did not happen from the fourth to last round of the 2016-17 championship, when the equal of Viterbo brought dark clouds over the team, followed by the dismissal of Mr. Braglia and by a final that all the fans unfortunately remember well.
Here, the “beating heart” of the passion for grays was unleashed on social media, well before the kick-off was whistled at the Nespoli stadium. The desire for redemption after four years, the hope that the wheel could turn for once pushed supporters to give their best even with irony (“I expect a surge in sales of anxiolytics and cardio protectors in the city”, the comment of Valerio Reineri). City councilor Giorgio Abonante called for calm while admitting that “it is difficult to maintain it when you are watching a game that could be channeled on the right track.”
But most, in the lead Mike Patitucci, have peremptorily reiterated that “we must be silent”: superstition and awareness that luck has rarely been with Alexandria in recent decades.
Then, the match in Olbia with the yellow of a ghost goal for the Sardinians, with the referee who continued. But at 1-0 signed Lella: the Sardinians protest, the referee let it go but when Lella, the popular Tony Frisina could not resist: “Now the goal is there”. It was a crescendo of emotions and joy, especially at the 2-0 mark that eases the tension: “Those in the white jersey are Real Madrid”, the witty comment by Bruno Boris, from Cultura Grigionera di Pozzolo, to highlight the gap pace, running and also technical in the 90 ‘of Olbia-Como. Udoh’s goal puts the game in icebox: first place now reachable by the grays without depending on others and another wave of euphoric comments. Three stylized pears stand out on the profile of many Alexandrians, Luca Goretta brings up the famous nursery rhyme «1 2 3 who doesn’t run away» adding «Como is in playoff form».
Gigi Ponziano, has no doubts about the summer destination: “Whatever happens, I’ll go on vacation to Olbia”, Daniele Cepollina has aensiero for his friend Matteo Gastaldo, the fireman from Gavi who died with two colleagues in the Quargnento tragedy: “We were close on 25 April 2018, when the grays won the Italian Cup of C. You, grenade and gray, were beyond the fence, in uniform, and you couldn’t cheer too much. Maybe very soon you will do it from up there».