And Nikola Stulic’s day also came. It seemed like a curse: the missed goals, the groans from the crowd, a lack of confidence that was leading the Serbian astray. Everything behind us. A flash in the 72nd minute was enough to take away the bad thoughts and launch Lecce at 16 points: the Salento team gave a good shake-up to the standings and put a disappointing and defeatist Pisa in trouble, suffering their third consecutive defeat, without, among other things, scoring. This time Stulic started from the bench (Camarda in his place), perhaps Eusebio Di Francesco wanted to take some pressure off him and the Serbian giant, shortly after entering the field, decided a very difficult match. On the day of Pantaleo Corvino’s 76th birthday, who took him from Charleroi and designated him Nikola Krstovic’s heir. For Stulic, now, another story begins. Just as for Lecce who will return to the pitch after Christmas (the match against Inter was postponed, the Nerazzurri are playing in the super cup) with a more serene soul, while Pisa, who have never had a shot on target, will have to reflect after yet another misstep in a direct clash.
Teams blocked Some surprises in Lecce’s starting line-up which started with Ndaba in place of Gallo, while Camarda was preferred to Stulic up front. On the right wing there is room for Pierotti. In Pisa, however, another relay in goal: this time Semper is back between the posts (Scuffet on the bench), with Moreo in front teaming up with Meister. As expected, the two teams started very carefully, the players were afraid of making mistakes and did not risk the play. Furthermore, after 10 minutes, Lecce also lost Medon Berisha, the fittest man at the moment among the Salento players. Inside Kaba who did a more quantitative job than his teammate, who left on a stretcher to applause. Pisa had a decent approach thanks to Aebischer’s playmaking in the middle and Idrissa Touré’s runs on the right. But the Nerazzurri’s good intentions did not last very long. As the minutes passed, Gilardino’s team lowered their center of gravity, giving courage to a Lecce team that tried to break through especially on the left, where Sottil created more than one problem for the opposing defense, already worried about controlling Camarda. Lecce had more possession, controlled the game more, but they created the two biggest dangers from corner kicks. In the 28th minute Gaspar’s effort found Semper ready to instinctively reject, then Camarda was unable to give strength to the headed ball on the rebound. Shortly after, another corner and a great opportunity for Tiago Gabriel who failed to reach the goal from two steps, following an assist from the left by Camarda. The first half went away like this, without great emotions, anonymously.
The bench decides In the second half, Gilardino, in order not to take risks, removed Calabresi who had been booked and brought in Albiol who positioned himself at the center of the defense with Caracciolo who moved to the right. The Nerazzurri rearguard was immediately helped by Kaba who missed an easy pass from inside the area for Camarda, who could have shot without fail. However, Lecce persisted, throwing an infinite number of balls into the area. On one of these, Coulibaly came one step away from the winning deflection. It was the prelude to the decisive goal scored by Stulic, who shortly after replacing Camarda took advantage of the assist to Banda’s kiss from the left: the two new arrivals thus decided a match that could have a significant specific weight on the fight for survival. In the final, Gilardino tried everything, but Lecce controlled without worries and took home three well-deserved points.