If there is anyone who emerged victorious from the 6pm clash between Empoli and Fiorentina, those are the two defenses. The 0-0 that emerged at the Castellani is the reflection of two almost impervious rearguards, who gave life to a show in which, combined, they were able to put together just one shot on target, that of Pezzella centrally and neutralized without worries by De Gea . “There’s a circus for entertainment”, someone would have said.
The Empoli coach, D’Aversasummed up the match thus: “If you ask me what match I saw, I’d say that my boys took to the pitch with the will to win the match, we knew how important it was, and to give ourselves an unthinkable ranking position. But I have little to complain about, we moved up the table and didn’t concede a goal. We work hard as a team, for the performance, and the result is a consequence of this.”
His counterpart Palladino, however, welcomes the draw with less enthusiasm and speaks openly of two points lost: “There are positive aspects and some in which we could have done better. Starting from the last, in the first half we had many opportunities to hurt Empoli but little clarity in the choice and in the last pass, in which we had hurt the others in some occasions. The positive aspects are many: we give continuity to the result, we only suffered one shot from Empoli. Excellent performance, solidity of the team, we all defended together. There is regret because we could have won it, it’s two points lost.”