Tomorrow’s Opponents: Benevento Calcio
Benevento have lost two important players in a week in the form of their standout talent Ciciretti, who has left the club, and their captain Lucioni who is suspended. It’s a blow that has ruined the winter break after the team trained hard to make sure they were as ready as could be for the start of the second half of the season. Hopes of one of the most unlikely relegation escapes in history are still alive, however, following a haul of six points over the Christmas period, finally ending their terrible run that had broken every record. As a team, the Witches have had to count the cost of some preventable errors this season, often suffering from a lack of confidence, showing too much respect and losing a seemingly never-ending sequence of matches in the dying moments. At the Dall’Ara tomorrow, Benevento will find out how close they are to realising their unlikely ambitions in the months to come.
De Zerbi‘s 3-4-3 formation – previously in employed his time at Foggia – has started to pay some dividends. A busy transfer window has seen the coach bring in some important new options starting with French centre back Billong who should help provide more stability alongside Costa and Djimsiti. An interesting signing is that of Sandro, a colossal Brazilian defensive midfielder who was once a high-profile player in the Premier League but has played very little over the last few seasons because of injury. Benevento also have Memushaj on loan but more has been expected from him this season and the same can be said of the cultured Viola who has yet to prove he belongs in Serie A. BFC will have to be alert to the creativity of D’Alessandro who can get the best out of reborn centre forward Coda (more decisive so far than the disappointing Puscas, Iemmello and Armenteros), and there might be a debut for number 10 Guilherme who has already played across half of Europe.
The statistics are heavily against the Witches at the moment. They don’t score many, they concede more than two goals a game, they don’t mark tightly in the area and if you have pace you’ll put them in trouble. Since the second half of December, however, the team has been a totally different proposition compared to the Benevento of the first four months of the campaign.
