Rome and Florence: in Europe you win with your heart

Rome, Fiorentina, Inter: Raise your hand who would have bet even a cent. Exactly thirty years after the last time, three Italian teams will face off in three different European finals. Roma in the Europa League against Sevilla – who eliminated a good if within their limits Juventus -, Fiorentina against West Ham and Inter against Manchester City. Roma, Fiorentina and Inter, three very different teams that we will come back to individually, but three teams that, apart from the rhetoric, are united by one deeply Italian element: the heart. Not just that Feeling but the heart, as the Jewish people would call it Lev: the spirit, the courage that gives strength to the spirit and the legs, and it is the same spirit and legs.

Or as Mayakovsky would say the heart as drumof existence.

There is so much heart in this Rome. In it arises a pure, resolute and decisive soul Nearly José Mourinho cried among the Giallorossi fans in Leverkusen. Fear, effort, but also a lot of pride in a historic result. In the BayArena, Bayer played the expected game. He attacked, hit the bar and came close (once or twice, but not more) to end the game with more than thirty shots on target from Rui Patricio. On the other hand, Roma has written a new chapter of Saint Catenaccio, who is no longer even a saint but a god Catenaccio: a single god in a monotheism that last night would not allow anything else, not even a counterattack.

Result? “An epic game” and 0-0 and another final for Mourinho’s Roma. The second in two years, the stuff of sci-fi given the – damn – recent history of the Giallorossi, always one step from the finish line and always beyond. Just for understanding: with Mourinho Roma did it in two years as many European finals conquered in the previous 94-year history. And the credit, as the Giallorossi players confessed at the end of the game, goes primarily to José: “He’s different in everything,” e.g quote Captain Pellegrini.

We wrote it several times and we repeat it again. In Rome, only José Mourinho was able to convert that on the Roma side Bad luck In determinationThe heat In will to power. footballers in menAbove all: “I’m the captain of a team made up of real men,” continued Pellegrini himself last night, never so bad and focused in his career. It’s a different way and an old way of playing football. With all due respect to the Cassanos and the Adanis who almost looked like they were cheering them on yesterday nice kick from Leverkusen – team with sophisticated phrasing and fleeting concreteness.

Roma will find that in the final Sevilla, a sort of metonym for the Europa League. A team that seemed dead this year and was revived by the insteadantimodern (according to his own words) Jose Luis Mendilibar. He arrived in Andalusia at the end of March and led Sevilla to the Europa League final, beating the likes of Manchester United and Juventus. Like Allegri, but in his own way he is a prophet of simple football. And considering Juventus did it yesterday too. But can Allegri’s team score goals (0-1, Vlahovic) and concede a goal after just six minutes? That Juventus, obviously, yes. And it’s difficult to understand the future of the Livorno coach at a club in need of a rebuild.

La Vecchia Signora risks defeat one of the worst seasons ever. Not so much in terms of titles (null), but in terms of on-pitch responses at crucial moments. And also of progress that showed itself more in results – over the year – or in individual players than in teamwork, in the desire to return to Allegri 1’s dominant and ruthless Juventus. All with one Penalty Trailer that threatens to blow up the counter and with it the cups. Just to clarify, someone like Rabiot, who for Chiellini (Sky Sport) is “the only one who keeps at all costs”, could have played the black and white’s last European Cup game.

In Sanchez Pizjuan’s red hell (a credit to the Andalusian fans in particular), Sevilla made it 1-1, then 2-1, with two goals old friends from Serie A: ex Milan Suso as mentioned and then Lamela with a great header. Papu Gomez’s appearance at the end added the touch of nostalgia and background laughter that never fails even at the football gala. All three have had a decidedly less fortunate time for our football which now presents them with the challenge of snatching the trophy that seems almost a right and a duty for this club.

In the meantime, the trials are being opened at Juventus, but all with suspended judgments, at least until the sports judiciary makes its decision. A “folklore season” as Massimiliano Allegri defined it. But now the problem is next. Where does this Juventus start? Who is it from? From which technical project and from which classification? We’ll try to find out soon. Under the black-and-white sky, confusion reigns, fueled by amateurish sports justice management.

Nevertheless, one almost has the feeling that all of this is represented an alibi for the black and white; that chaos has been added to chaos until nothing can be distinguished.

And that the chaos yesterday could have at least produced a little dance, a European final: it played with the details, with the (missed) chances, with the balance sheet. The game was overall a high level game, much more than in the other semifinals. A 50-50 game ended in extra time, in which, as at the end of a season that is soon to end for Juventus, the balance sheet tends to favor the opponent: perhaps given the 180 minutes, it’s even right. A few years ago, however, Juve always managed to get those games on their side. And it is perhaps this awareness that hurts even more.

Finally, a few words Florentine from Italy who has too much heart. Let’s explain it to ourselves: sometimes it seems that Fiorentina lose sight of the ground-to-ground factor, due to the exuberant enthusiasm for the game proposal, which is wide and contemporary in its horizon, which is necessary to achieve, for example, the Lead maintain situation with more clarity. The 1-1 draw could have made things even more complicated, but Viola was past Basel yesterday. And then: Gonzalez brace, Barak goal. The heart, but also the quality and identity of the game, is the Fiorentina drum.

After a difficult season, there were many points of criticism (including internal ones that made Fiorentina fall into their typical masochism) The season ends with two finals, also in the Italian Cup, and demonstrates a team with head and character. And who dreams of a title that has been missing in Europe since 1961? The antithesis of David Moyes will face the Italian and his team: pragmatism made coach. Let’s hold each other tight and love each other so much. There will be suffering and none of our teams will start as favourites. But only those who have a big heart suffer.