Coach then wants to walk 300 km
After their last game of 2021, the fate of US Salernitana 1919 seemed sealed long ago: the southern Italians, who are playing in Serie A for the first time since 1998/99 this season, lost 0:5 to defending champions Inter. After the first half of the season, the game of the 19th matchday could only be played in April due to numerous corona cases before Christmas, the club from Salerno in Campania had just eight points and a goal difference of -31. Around five months later, the Granata have it in their own hands to create the miracle, no less than staying up in the league.
The Transfermarkt statistics “bottom of the table” shows: Anyone who has been at the bottom after 18 games in Serie A since the 1929/30 season is relegated to 85.4 percent. This happened to 76 out of 89 teams. Most recently, FC Crotone managed to save them five years ago, after December looked as hopeless as Salerno. The Calabrian Sharks had just one point more than the US this season. At the end of the season there were 34 and 17th place in the table out of 20. Salernitana went through a similar development in the second half of the season. The two success stories share a name: Davide Nicola.
The 49-year-old coach was employed in Crotone from the summer of 2016 to the end of 2017 and led the club to stay up. He took over Salernitana on February 15 of this year. There too, despite great efforts on the winter transfer market, all signs were pointing to relegation. Predecessor Stefano Colantuono had only won two games since mid-October, following promotion coach Fabrizio Castori, and today he can look back on a catastrophic point average of 0.6.
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Salernitana’s Nicola sure: “Dream will come true on the last matchday”
Quite different Nicola: The ex-professional from near Turin lost only four of 13 games since he took over. Most recently there were four wins from six games, Salernitana has been unbeaten since April 10th. With the 2:1 in the catch-up game against fellow promoted Venezia, the Campanians left the relegation zone for the first time. The Tifosi don’t lose their enthusiasm completely when direct competitor Cagliari Calcio equalizes 1-1 on Sunday evening in the ninth minute of stoppage time (!) through Giorgio Altare. With a win, Salernitana would have been four points ahead of the Sardinians and five ahead of Genoa CFC with two games remaining.
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“Of course we would like to achieve the dream of being rescued as soon as possible,” said Nicola after losing a point late in the game. “It sucks to concede a goal at the end of the game, but we have to be objective. It was a tough fight against a team with strong values who fought just as much for a goal as we did.” The coach emphasized that it was the third game in a week. “Our dream will come true on the last day of the game. Now we have to focus our will to win on Empoli.”
The Tuscan club are next up on Matchday 37 – Cagliari then meet Inter and Genoa go to Napoli. Match point Salernitana. However, the Granata have to make do without captain Franck Ribéry, who was sent off as a result of a pack formation after his team’s opening goal by Simone Verdi – actually sitting on the bench. But although the now 39-year-old Frenchman can still help the team with his well-known qualities: he may not be decisive for the last two games. Because Nicola has managed to conjure up a unit from an apparently randomly bought bunch of players and the fans, for whom relegation was almost certain, that hardly any team in the lower half of the table in Italy has.
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“Nicola unblocked us mentally and gave us more peace of mind,” said striker Verdi, who had already scored the winning goal against Venezia. “Before we didn’t believe in ourselves, now we do and we have to keep going like this.” A statement that you can feel as soon as the team steps onto the pitch.
On loan from FC Turin, Verdi is one of eleven players that Salernitana signed in winter – including goalkeeper Luigi Sepe, you could even form a whole eleven from January additions. Together with the 6.5 million euro midfielder Éderson and defender Federico Fazio, Verdi was the most important of these, analyzes Jatin Dietl (Jeidl), TM Area Manager Italy. “He doesn’t always play outstandingly, but he has a lot of experience in the league and in the relegation battle. He also scores the important goals – five for the US so far. Éderson is arguably the best player in the team, he’s being watched by much bigger teams now and ex-Roman Fazio has stabilized the defense since Nicola switched to a back three.”
Salernitana still has two games to go – first in Empoli, then in front of the home Tifosi against Udinese. Both opponents have long been saved. If the Granata actually manage to do the miracle, coach Nicola will go much further. About 300 kilometers to be exact. If he succeeds, he bet, he will make a pilgrimage to Rome to meet the Pope there. Even as a Crotone trainer, he redeemed a comparable bet and rode the approximately 1,300 kilometers to his home in Piedmont by bike from the sole of his boot.
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