
Cremonese Aim to Keep Pace With Serie B’s Breakaway Pack as They Host Modena
By Emmet Gates
Cremonese are doing their best to ensure there is a play-off in Serie B this season.
The Grigiorossi are keeping on the heels of Spezia in third position. Only six points separate both sides at present, and Serie B rules stipulate that if the gap between third and fourth is 14 points or larger, then a play-off is annulled for the season. It is essentially a mechanism to ensure the quality of Serie A remains entact.
Yet such a scenario hasn’t been realised since the 2006-07 season, when three big hitters — Juventus, Genoa and Napoli — all went up after Genoa, who finished third, were 10 points clear of fourth-placed Piacenza.
Giovanni Stroppa’s side have picked up momentum over the last few weeks, and go into the fixture with Modena searching for a third consecutive win.
Their last outing produced a 3-1 win against Cosenza at the Stadio Giovanni Zini. Swiss defender Charles Pickel headed home the opener following a brilliant cross from Jari Vandeputte down the left-hand side.
Cosenza hit one back through Manuel Ricciardi just two minutes later, after the right-back produced a neat finish that kissed the post en route to goal.
The home side piled on the pressure in the second half in search of a winner. Cosenza, as is often the case this season, was reduced to 10 men after goalscorer Ricciardi was given his marching orders for hauling down Tommaso Barbieri.
Cremonese were wasteful and should’ve been out of sight, but a combination of bad finishing and last-ditch heroics from Cosenza defender Michael Venturi kept the score level.
Yet the away side couldn’t contain the Cremonese tide forever, and the second did arrive courtesy of Italian football stalwart Franco Vazquez.
The Argentine scooped low to convert Vandeputte’s cross from the left-hand side, giving the former Palermo and Parma man his ninth goal of the campaign.
Substitute Dennis Johnsen then put the seal on a comprehensive victory with a sumptuous strike from just outside the box, caressing the ball into the opposite corner of Alessandro Micai’s goal.
They made slightly hard work of it, but in the end Cremonese got the three points they deserved.
“This was the attitude I also asked of the lads in the first half,” commented Stroppa about his side’s second half display. “I’m happy for the boys, we brought home the three points and I’m satisfied.”
Next up for Cremonese on the promotion push is another home game at the Zini, this time against Modena. The side from Emilia-Romagna are firmly in mid-table but are only five points clear of the relegation zone.
So tight are things in the bottom half of Serie B that Modena, who are 12th, are only a couple of Frosinone wins away from being sucked into trouble, with Leandro Greco’s side 18th.
Moreover, Modena have only won one game in their last five and have, in fact, won only five all season. One of them, surprisingly, came against high-flyers Pisa in mid-December.
Paolo Mandelli was drafted in to replace Pierpaolo Bisoli after round 12 of the season following a 1-0 defeat by Spezia.
Mandelli, who had been in charge of Modena’s primavera, has had a positive impact. Since taking the big chair, Modena have lost only once in 10. While they aren’t winning many, they aren’t losing neither.
This fixture last season saw Modena ship four goals in a 4-0 thrashing at the Zini, and Mandelli’s side will be keen to avoid a repeat.
With Mattia Caldara and Gregoire Defrel in the Modena squad, there is Serie A experience. Caldara, plagued with injury that ruined a once-promising career, has been fairly steady this season, making 20 appearances. Defrel, meanwhile, has only played 12 times since making the move from Sassuolo last summer.
For Cremonese, a win is needed to maintain momentum and keep the pressure on Spezia. For Modena, a chance to pull away from a relegation scrap is at stake. The stage is set for an intriguing game.
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