Chapter 38 Advance to the final
As time moves forward step by step, Fiorentina's record is not as stable as before. Unlike Fiorentina, which has won continuously, although Fiorentina is more exciting in its playing style, it often makes inexplicable mistakes, resulting in the loss of points that should not have been lost.
Fortunately, Fiorentina still firmly dominated the top of the standings with its huge points advantage before, but there are still some doubts among Fiorentina fans, who think the team's performance in the second half is a bit bad.
Ranieri was very depressed by this because he had expected this situation. After taking some main players from the starting lineup, Jonty, Giannikeda, Thomassi and others had excellent impact and running ability, but when it was necessary to maintain stability, these people were obviously not a good choice.
In this regard, Ranieli had to put the heavy responsibility on Divianio and Corini. He hoped that these two young players could become the metronomes in Fiorentina like Effenberg. He hoped that they could control the team's rhythm without Effenberg and Djokav. Don't keep rushing and hitting, and appropriately control the rhythm to attract the opponent from intensive defense, so that the team can get more goals.
At this time, Zhuang Mingge, as the club chairman, did not cause any trouble to Ranieri. Although he looked down on this coach from the bottom of his heart, he believed that his level was not enough to lead Fiorentina back to the peak.
But for now, everything Ranieri did in Fiorentina is quite satisfactory: he put the team's loose defense into shape, and some young players were also trained. If it weren't for some conservative and unwilling to rotate the lineup, Zhuang Mingge wouldn't want to replace Ranieri now, and he wouldn't think of anyone who would be more suitable for the team's needs under the current situation than Ranieri.
Therefore, when Ranieri was affected by fluctuations in his record, he was the first to stand up and openly support the head coach. Ranieri was a little surprised. He originally thought that even after arguing with the Chairman, he would not support him so firmly, but he did not expect that the other party would express his support for him so quickly.
"It seems that the Chairman's actions in the past were not intentionally targeted me!" Although Ranieri was still dissatisfied with Zhuang Mingge's "crossing the boundaries", he now regards those as unique impulses of young people. At least when he is needed to appear, the Chairman can still make the right choice.
After the main players had been rotated and repaired for a period of time, they passed the examination of Dr. Carter and were able to return to the stadium. After learning the news, Ranieri immediately put the players back into the starting lineup. Florence's record stabilized again, and the complaints among the fans disappeared.
Before April was completely over, Fiorentina led the league standings with 24 wins, 7 draws, 4 losses and 55 points. Since there are three rounds left in the league at this time, and Brescia, fourth-placed, has 7 points less than Fiorentina, so Fiorentina has already secured an upgrade place in advance in three rounds in advance, and the team will return to the Serie A next season.
The fans of Fiorentina were ecstatic and spontaneously rushed to the streets to thank the young chairman who made Fiorentina shine again, and the fans were even more happy.
On April 27, 1994, at the Frankie Stadium, the cheers of Florence fans were deafening.
"Wonderful barb shot, the goal of 'Prince of Uruguay' Francescoli is really wonderful!" The commentator of the game was shouting excitedly.
However, the fans of Fiorentina unexpectedly did not accuse the on-site commentator of his "reversal" behavior, because the score on the field is 4:1, the home team is in front and the away team is in the back, and the total score is 6:1. The fans are now just watching the game with the attitude of appreciating the game.
Shortly after Enzo Franciscoli scored this comforting goal, the referee of this game blew the whistle to announce the end of the game, and at this time the Frankie Stadium became a sea of joy.
"Congratulations to Fiorentina for successfully entering the Italian Cup final, and they will face the Sampdoria Club from the First League in the final."
Fiorentina fans are very excited about the team's ability to reach the Italian Cup final, because as long as they can defeat Sampdoria in the final, Fiorentina can participate in the European Cup Winners next season as a newly promoted team, which is a big temptation for Fiorentina, who has not participated in European competitions for many years.
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In May 1994, in order to make way for the World Cup, major European leagues came to an end, and the Italian League II, which Florence competed in, had also stopped fighting.
In the last three rounds, Florence still easily won with its strong strength and brought the championship trophy back to Florence.
Although Fiorentina fans do not attach much importance to this championship, this does not prevent them from using this excuse to celebrate. Many fans even celebrated while shouting "Serie A, we are here". In the eyes of these fans, this second-tier championship is just an embellishment on the road to Fiorentina's return to Class A.
"I think we should give the fans a bigger gift! What do you think?" Zhuang Mingge stood in the office and looked out the window. There were also a large number of Fiorentine fans gathered outside the Florence office building, among them, either holding large posters of their favorite stars - such as Batistuta, Effenberg, or holding long slogans and banners, and even portraits of Zhuang Mingge.
Standing in front of the window, Zhuang Mingge saw a giant cartoon held by more than a dozen fans in the crowd, which depicted almost all the first-team players in Fiorentina this season. They were wearing armor and charging with weapons, and led by the team's current head coach Claudio Ranieri.
However, Zhuang Mingge is so interested in this portrait because he saw himself in it. The young Florence president dressed in a magician dress, looked very quiet, holding a scroll in his hand; Ranieri is a head coach who asked for help from the magician played by Zhuang Mingge, and he specially wrote a very interesting conversation in bold and enlarged fonts.
Ranieri wrote: "Chairman, I need more excellent players!"
Next to Zhuang Mingge's portrait, it reads: "Don't worry! This scroll of mine can meet all the requirements of Florence!"
The magician? Touched his nose and thought that what he did since he became the president of Florence was indeed similar to the legendary omnipotent magicians.
The training base, experimental center, players, general manager... are almost all created by Zhuang Mingge.
Thinking of this, I feel that I am still quite awesome!" Although it is very depressing to run around, and there are so many things that make him busy all the time, Zhuang Mingge enjoys the feeling he is now, "Now, there are only two Italian Cup finals left!"
*******
On May 4, Florence was at the Frankie Stadium, waiting for the "Sea Blue Legion" Sampdoria, who came to challenge from **.
Florence attaches great importance to this final, because if Fiorentina wins the championship, then the team can participate in the European Cup next season. At this time, the Cup of Winners is second only to the European Cup. After all, the champions of both can compete for the European Super Cup title...
Considering that many players in Fiorentina's team have not experienced the atmosphere of the finals, head coach Ranieri prioritized players with major competition experience when arranging the starting lineup of this game. Young players such as Vieri, Giannikeda, and Montera were all sitting on the bench and standby.
On the other side of the stadium is Sampdoria, who is at the end of the "Golden Sampdoria". Most of the players in the team have experienced the baptism of major competitions many times. The team's new boss Mantovani Jr. (former chairman, Paul Mantovani Jr., died in a car accident on October 14, 1993. This is also seen by later fans as the turning point of Sampdoria's decline) has no extra time to carry out the "transformation" of the team as they imagined. Overall, they still maintain the gorgeous style of playing in the past. Therefore, many people predict that Fiorentina, who just won the second division championship, will face a hard battle in the Italian Cup final this time.
Catanic, Evani, Gulit, Lombardo, Paliuca, Veljoward, Mancini... The current Sampdoria is full of stars, and the team's record is also quite good. Sampdoria, who has won the third place in the league this season (7 points behind the championship AC Milan), has the most fierce firepower in Serie A (64 goals). If it weren't for the poor defense (conceded 39 goals, only Lazio conceded more goals among the top 8 teams), it would be possible to win the league championship.
Perhaps it was precisely because of losing the long-awaited league championship that Sampdoria's entire team burst into amazing momentum in this game. Although Sampdoria's main players are almost over 30 years old and lack of physical fitness is inevitable, the defense line composed of Catanic, Mannini, Viljoward and Paliuca has repeatedly blocked the offensive of Fiorentina. Evani and Gulit were organized and dispatched in the midfield, and Lombardo and Mancini repeatedly launched counterattacks to the Zi Lily's defense line.
The game was full of passion, but neither could break through the opponent's goal. In the end, the two sides tied a zero-to-zero home game in Fiorentina. The second leg will be played a week later at the Feraris Stadium in Sampdoria.
Chapter completed!