Starts: Scendiamo in campo così! 👊🏻Sponsored by: @Master__Clean #FROSPE | #Playoff20 pic.twitter.com/9pYYiQSIvt— Frosinone Calcio (@Frosinone1928) August 16, 2020
Comes off after 84 minutes with Frosinone down 1-0. ⏱84’ 🔄Altro cambio del #Frosinone: ↪️Ardemagni ↩️@AndrijaNovakov3 #FROSPE 0-1— Frosinone Calcio (@Frosinone1928) August 16, 2020
Second leg to be played in La Spezia on Thursday. It's going to be hard, but not impossible. With no spectators, home or away doesn't really matter.
Same situation as last week. Lose 1-0 at home in the 1st leg. Have to overcome it on the road. Helps them it's pseudo-neutral, so if they can make it a higher scoring game, they advance w/ the win. Andrija was the best of a bad bunch. Faded last ten. Before very smooth hold-up & outletting. Created a number of chances. He's almost impossible to dispossess off the dribble, will draw defenders, and get to a spot for a pass or shot. Made a couple key passes. Again they're trying to lump it fw and use his height a lot. So important to get him to Serie A. Hopefully that would prompt reinforcements. Frosinone is such a bad passing team & unathletic. I think they may be the only team in the top 5 system's top 2 tiers that are exclusively white. Get beat to a ton of 50-50's. Could compensate w/ vision. They do not. Kind of hard to believe they're even here. Doing it w/ smoke & mirrors.
Correction (makes the task a lot tougher). Frosinone need to win this series. Being tied won’t do. If tied after 180 minutes, the higher seeded team advances, which is Spezia.Away goals don’t matter here. https://t.co/DM85XEin3p— Daniel (@DanielSmith1022) August 16, 2020 Frosinone need to win on the nominal road by a minimum of 2 goals. Though they did accomplish just that in the last tie.
There is a ton at stake. For whatever reason he’s never been particularly attractive to teams, whether it was Reading squatting on his playing time, or ending up in Serie B. I kinda feel like he is so close he just needs some dominos to fall to take that next step.
Dunno about "ending up in Serie B". Frosinone are in the Italian D2 playoffs while Reading are at the bottom of England's D2. A lot of people would say he moved up in the world.
Since his last season was in the Eredivisie with fortuna, that feels like and probably was a step down.
Starts, 3:15 EST, final game for promotion into Serie A. OUR STARTING XI! #SPEFRO pic.twitter.com/K90FjzgJ5Y— Frosinone Calcio 🇬🇧 (@Frosinone1928en) August 20, 2020
Quite a lot of fouls in the last 10, but overall Frosinone has had the better chances. ---- First half is over. Final minutes played in front of Frosinone's goal. I have the impression that the ref is not calling all of the Spezia fouls, there was one on Ciano that was a clear sweep from behind when he was running alone towards goal, but the ref didn't see it somehow. ---- Frosinone needs a two-goal win, but the start of the second has been all Spezia. The clock is definitely against them.
Nova not very involved this second half. Their attacks are predictable: Maiello pass wide to Beghetto who crosses in the area for Ciano. Our guy seems to be by-passed even when in a good position. And Ciano just now, once again, passes the ball to where Nova was two seconds before the pass. And makes the despair gesture.
Nova wins a rebound (header) and the ball falls to Rhoden who scores! Frosinone in front 0-1! ---- Nova shoots a foot over the upper right corner. When he gets involved they get their better chances, I wish Ciano were better at figuring out where Nova is.
Damn, got in decent position to take the lead in the tie. Worked two guys off the dribble for a shot just outside the box, but skied it. The goal livened him back up. Could have been a real hero there. Still more chances hopefully. 30 minutes to go, but he was already tired. Don't think he plays 90.
Ciano is a good player but quite selfish. He wants to be the man, and will shoot into a forest of legs rather than make the pass. It's bothered me all game. Nova out.
Damn, coming off in the 67th minute now. That was his last chance. Now won't have the opportunity to impact if Frosinone get promoted. Deserved another 10 minutes & to leave w/ Frosinone potentially in the lead. Why go like for like down a goal?
They've brought in a forward who's never scored for them. IMO a mistake, although Nova looked tired. ---- Refs thirsty, so there's a water break. ---- Nova did well in the first, was somewhat ignored for the first part of the second, and could have benefited of a more team-player partner up front. Since he's gone, they have ceded the initiative to Spezia. That may be on Nesta, saving energies for the last minutes.
Great. Now God has sent a cloud to protect Spezia's goal. Nesta brought Paganini in too late. Citro (Frosinone) fouled in the area. Ref didn't see it either. Surprisingly, Galabinov (Spezia's #9), the dirtiest player on the pitch, doesn't even have a yellow. Too many hospital balls. Frosinone is ending this in Spezia's area but playing desperate, not organized. It's over. Spezia goes to Serie A. The last two minutes Nesta and Italiano validated all the stereotypes about Italians talking with their hands.
And it's Spezia who celebrates their arrival to the top flite, as Frosinone win 1-0, but it's a goal short in the series. They had a couple borderline chances late to secure promotion, but weren't up to the task. Thought they were worse w/out him on the field, in spite of the desperation. Would have liked to see Novakovich control his destiny. Could have done more in his 67, but was pretty solid, & just had contributed to a goal + chance prior to his exit. Fans were also dismayed by his removal & generally positive about him. Makes no difference in the end as he'll be playing 2nd division football again next season. As far as his club, they didn't deserve it. They have mediocre talent even for Serie B. Spezia had a sizable advantage. Frosinone punched above their weight.
They left it all on the field, and Nova ended the season much better than he started it. Unfortunately Dionisi was injured, or he'd have partnered up front with Nova and Ciano would have been the replacement for when Nova got tired (the usual scheme). With Dio out, Nesta had to rely on the new (old) guy, Ardemagni, who was never up to the task.