Ascoli, Viali: “We understand that to achieve a great result in Lecco we will need a difficult match”

Here are the words of Mr. Viali two days before the championship match against Lecco:

“We took advantage of the day off to work, took care of some details, the team worked very well, we came to this match ready. We are aware that to achieve a good result in Lecco we will have to play a difficult, decisive and bad match from a sporting point of view. In the last away matches we tried to win everywhere, even in Cremona and Brescia, I expect that the team will go to Lecco with the same determination as in the last two away matches. Objectively there is a numerical problem in defense, but I don’t like to approach matches with a negative mindset, we tried alternative solutions, so apart from conceding, the team is ready and we will go to Lecco to play a great match. In the middle of the field I have more repeat matches, the average level of the team is increasing; I have some assessments about the offensive package: Rodriguez had some muscle discomfort and will return to the group today. I have two more training sessions to go and then I will make the appropriate assessments. Caligara spent two weeks at a very high level, physically and mentally, he did not allow himself to be tarnished by the negative episode against Sampdoria.

It’s never nice to play against teams that have changed coaches because you don’t have much to recommend them, but that’s been happening a lot lately. Lecco have always struggled in the matches they have played, with the exception of the match against Cosenza, they are a team that has never been tamed; in that stadium, which I know well, I expect a strong match from the opponent, difficult from the point of view of the purity of the game, it will also be a dirty match, but at such moments we will have to be able to hold on to it, we will have to play many different matches in one race.

Is Novakovic the most dangerous? He is a very important player, but he is not the only one, they have three or four interesting young players, we will have to stay awake and limit mistakes because any little incident can change the game from one side to the other. We will have to give a very crisp and clean performance, we will have to be as precise as possible.

I think the matches where we lost points were the last two matches, against Sampdoria and Brescia, so there is a lot of regret. Otherwise, the matches were always logical: in Cremona we lost twice to a strong opponent and bounced back both times; with Ternana we knew how to suffer when our opponents reacted. It’s time to show even more determination at certain points in the match and I believe this will play a decisive role in Saturday’s match in Lecco.

Bogdan? The minor operation to clean up his knee went very well, better than expected, we will see him back on the field next week and assess how he is physically fit. Rodriguez suffered a muscle contracture in the middle of the week, now we will check him to understand whether there are risks or not.

The turning point match in Lecco? Don’t think that the turning point has to come in Lecco, I don’t want my players to think that because we have to realize that to win there we need to show a great performance. The team has been looking for an away win for a long time. He played great games, especially in the last two away games, but the results were achieved because the boys played well, not because of the opponents’ mistakes. Regardless of the opponent’s name, we had the strength, as well as the disadvantage, to influence the match on our own and I expect my team to go to Lecco with the same mentality, ready to fight for 95 minutes.”