It wasn’t just personality. That was there too and it was noticeable, but Catanzaro, who made Monza seem smaller throughout the match, brought every possible aspect into play: strategy, tactics, technique, hunger. The knockout blow to secure a deserved victory and avoid the same insult at the end of time was missed, but certain lessons can always be useful and the substance remains unchanged: Aquilani’s team has once again demonstrated that it is properly equipped for the playoffs too, where the “competing” underlined by the Roman coach on Easter Monday immediately complicated life at Monza with the right strategy, certainly not focused on waiting to start again: it was a plan carefully studied by Aquilani, who evidently expected the man-on-man pressure from the opponents and prepared the countermeasures to evade them in the approach from below as well as in high attacks.
And so, on a tactical level, Liberali often acted like Iemmello, in the sense that he went down to the midfield to guarantee an extra outlet and not leave Pontisso and Petriccione outnumbered, Alesi and D’Alessandro, as long as they were on the pitch, exchanged positions between the attacking midfield and the left winger, Favasuli aligning himself with the strikers, forcing first Azzi then Ciurria (never seen from that side) onto the defensive, Pittarello who as usual was damned and the two small arms Cassandro and Brighenti who didn’t give Monza’s strikers any breath, so much so that Catanzaro’s goal came from an advance by Brighenti in midfield. For the technique, the balls attached to the feet of Liberali, who was barely contained, and the billiard shot of Pontisso were enough for the lead, who brought out a lot of quality, together with Petriccione, in a department in which they dictated the law despite having Pessina, Obiang and Hernani in front, i.e. three of the strongest and most experienced midfielders in the championship.
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