Catanzaro-Como gave him the opportunity to reconnect with an old friend and teammate (Fabio Di Sole), return to a land that he has never forgotten (“I remained very attached to Calabria and, if I can, I'll do a tour willingly”), but above all to see the opponents live in the promotion race. «The atmosphere and the crowd left an impression on me, already from the queue at the entrance you could understand what Catanzaro is experiencing», underlined Simone Giacchetta, champion of Reggina when he was defender (throughout the 1990s) and since 2021 director sportsman from Cremonese. The evening before that match, his team had won Bari and seemed to have gained new momentum for second place.
Instead, the internal setback in the last round against Ternana (third knockout in the four most recent outings) made them overtake Venezia and get closer to fifth place for the Giallorossi (down by four points) than to second place for Como (up by five). In short, Cremonese is playing out their last hopes of avoiding the playoffs between Saturday's trip to the “Ceravolo” and the following one to Venice: «And for us it is better to face high-ranking teams», said Giacchetta.
In fact, before this mini-crisis (“of results, not of performances”) Stroppa's team had beaten Como: «Maybe we paid too much for our run-up, after the success against the Como area we thought we would continue and this has given us a a little betrayed, we lost matches in an inexplicable way if we think about the many scoring opportunities created, but football is like that and, even if we have the best defense of the tournament, we are now conceding too many goals.”
On Saturday the grey-reds will try to reverse the trend: «It will be a high-level, quality match between challengers who play modern football and are led by very capable coaches. Catanzaro – continued the sporting director – will try to dominate the game, to attract the opponent to clear the field, they have been together for two years, they have players of absolute value who just need a glance to understand what to do and a script, of the highest depth, prepared by a technician who knows how to hide the defects and enhance the merits of his. I imagine he will want to produce play against us too, because he always behaves the same way at home and away.”
The first leg of the championship ended 0-0: Catanzaro was in its baptism of fire in the category, Cremo restarts after relegation, still without striker Coda, nor Stroppa (who took over from Ballardini in the sixth round). «The championship immediately gave us some beatings – highlighted Giacchetta -, then we started a run-up for which we are now paying the price a bit, but the journey is important, with enthusiasm, play and vitality. We are certainly different from then, as is Catanzaro, who had also demonstrated his idea of football and with the passing of time has strengthened his certainties, so much so that he is confident even when he is in great difficulty, his is a path of absolute value”. Yes, a great direct clash will be staged on Saturday at the “Ceravolo”.
