Re: Serie A Thread - 2009/10 Season
Ben if you say that Milan disappointed because the way Fiorentina played, well then i must agree with you.
i assume u meant to say bayern? well yes.. not exclusively, of course, but sure part of the credit for bayern performance goes to fiorentina.
u see, my only point is, they went in germany with a pretty solid plan, and they did (very well) what they were supposed to do.
they weren't supposed to go to the allianz arena and impose their own plot to the game... they weren't able to do it with weaker teams like cagliari or palermo in the past few weeks, let alone bayern munich.
even when top class clubs face each others in champions league, the away team doesn't usually bother to force his plot... most of them usually settle down and look for a chance to hit (manchester utd does it pretty often)... european fixtures are tricky. teams and coaches don't know each others as well as teams which plays in the same league. therefore they are much more careful in away fixtures.
mind u, careful doesn't mean defensive.... fiorentina had 6 shots on goal yesterday... just 2 less than bayern, and they did look much more dangerous than bayern aswell.
and btw what i just said refers to top class clubs... clubs which belong to the same level. now, fiorentina is a fantastic team, their football is entertaining and their players are skilled...... but, as entertaining and skilled as they are, they are not a top class club (maybe just not yet, who knows).
so if we can't expect man utd to go in milano and force milan to play "their game", how can we expect a team like fiorentina to go in munich and impose its plot to bayern?
and that assuming fiorentina was in a good form..... but we know fiorentina has never been in such a bad form as in the last 2 months.... and we know they played almost the entire match with 1 man less.
if u take into account all that then u'll see yesterday's match for what it was: not a scared defensive approach, but a brave display of personality from a young, unexperienced but very good team.
besides u also have to consider one last thing. this european campaign is already a success for fiorentina. according to their "step by step" program, they already went further than last year, so they already accomplished their european mission.... now they will have to focus on the campionato (as right now their partecipation to the next champions league is seriously in doubt, given the competition).
for bayern instead, this isn't a success already. getting out of the champions league at this stage would be seen as a failure for bayern munich (wich once again says about the gap between theese 2 teams). so the "motivation-factor" is all in their favour.
and finally, let's not forget that, if it wasn't for that offside goal, the game would have ended 1-1..... and probably right now everyone in europe would be praising fiorentina and cesare prandelli for such a great result.
long story short... as matthew the evangelist wrote,
give to Caesar what is Caesar's .... u're not going to question an apostle, are u?
edit:
stefano, i still didn't read a thing from u about milan's match. wich are your thoughts about the game and your feelings about the 2nd leg?
