Niang’s shot ends behind Svilar. The stopwatch reads 93rd minute. The “Castellani” explodes with joy. Like the stadium, also the bench that spills onto the pitch. It’s a heavy goal, a decisive goal to save Empoli who at the last moment earn the chance to play in Serie A again next season. Celebrate on the sidelines too Davide Nicola, someone who knows a thing or two about stays in Serie A and about seemingly impossible undertakings. There is a lot of the Piedmontese coach in this success of the Tuscans, an expert in comebacks and sprint victories, as he, a cycling lover, likes them, standing on the pedals. At the last corner.
Nicola’s exploits
There were four salvations in his CV. The first, the most sensational, was the one with Crotone in the 2016-2017 season, the second with Genoa when in December 2019 they made a comeback that earned them 17th place. Same position the following season on the Turin bench and the year after again when he saved Salernitana at the end of yet another crazy rise.
The comeback against Empoli
In January here is another opportunity to rewrite history. Empoli are second to last in the standings, -5 behind the tandem formed by Udinese and Cagliari in third last place. The recovery was difficult but in the end he collected 23 points in the second round and on the most important day, the one where Daniele De Rossi’s Roma were up against him in search of European points, here was the last-minute success that gave the off to the party. Yet another for Davide Nicola.