UEFA Cup: Viola Go Through Alone

By: Martha | October 4th, 2007

Angry Bobo. And, just like that, Italy have gone down to one club in the UEFA Cup. Empoli were thrashed in Switzerland, Palermo struggled to a loss in PKs, and Sampdoria failed to score at Aalborg and went out on away goals. Fiorentina, however, squeaked through on PKs, and will be Serie A’s lonely representative in the Cup’s group stages. Woo hoo!

After securing a great 2-1 home win in the first leg against FC Zurich, Empoli returned to their senses today and suffered a misleadingly lopsided loss to the Swiss side, going out 4-2 on aggregate. Reports indicate the Italian side were by far the brighter team in the second half, after going down 1-0 shortly before the interval, but conceded two goals within four minutes and suddenly found themselves down 3-0 with less than 10 minutes to play. Things only got worse when Rincon was sent off for what Channel 4 poetically calls “a prison yard tackle,” and Empoli’s first-ever European venture clanged to a rather dire end.

Sampdoria, meanwhile, managed to keep a clean sheet away, but their concession of two away goals combined with their failure to score today meant Aalborg are moving on. Frustratingly for Samp, they dominated the match but were unable to find a breakthrough against a side that was content to sit back and absorb pressure, attacking only with the odd counter. Even the services of high-profile strikers Antonio Cassano and Vincenzo Montella (who came on for Cassano late in the second half) weren’t enough to get the team from Genoa a goal and they, too, head home empty-handed.

The other two matches involving Italian teams required extra time and penalty kicks to separate the sides, with only Fiorentina going through, thanks to a nearly perfect performance in PKs. Despite playing in front of a massive home crowd, the Viola suffered serious lapses in concentration throughout the match and, though they where always the better side, never managed to put any space between themselves and Groningen. Eventually, the Dutch side took the lead on a great second-half strike by captain Erik Nevland, who took a through ball on the turn and ripped it first-time into Sebastian Frey’s net. Fiorentina were back level within minutes, though, when Christian Vieri (who was good if sloooooooow for his 80 minutes) and Adrian Mutu ran exactly the same path to a long pass: Vieri brought it down and Mutu, who was missing chances left and right, finished cleanly. The first overtime was dominated by the Dutch (Frey got down well to make a couple big saves), while the Viola owned the second, but the match was always heading to PKs, something Groningen didn’t seem to have done much before — they missed terribly on a couple, while four of Fiorentina’s players calmly slotted the ball away, with Adrian Mutu’s the one that secured the win. Did I mention “woo hoo”?

Things didn’t go quite as well for Palermo. According to reports of the match, their game against Mlada Bolseslav was a dire affair, saved only by the fact that a 0-0 draw would send the Italians through to the next round. That comfort was yanked away, though, when Tomas Sedlacek scored in the 90th minute to pull Mlada level, cruelly calling to mind Bosko Jankovic’s injury time goal in the first leg, which had snatched Palermo an undeserved win. It sounds as if Palermo were playing all along for that 0-0 draw, and weren’t able to rouse themselves enough to do much with the ball once they went down, either in extra time or in PKs, where only Andrea Barzagli and Jankovic managed to score. The final penalty kick count was 4-2, though it honestly doesn’t sound like either side really deserved to go through. (If you saw the match, feel free to tell us how great it truly was, as I’m basing this entirely on written reports.)

So the Viola survive to fight another day. They’ve certainly got the ability to go deep into this tournament, but a lot is going to depend on how the draw goes for the, and which four teams end up in their group.