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Fiorentina have secured going through to the next round of Europa League long ago, so the match against Dinamo Minsk wasn't a crucial one in any way. It was supposed to be a little more than a friendly, in which Vincenzo Montella would give, perhaps the last chance to some of the players who weren't regulars to try to win him over. Based on this performances, most of them are one step closer to being sold in January than breaking into the first team squad.
Montella took the responsibility for the shameful performance, saying that he is disappointed in some of the players. Jasmin Kurtic said pretty much the same, especially about first half. Both used the word vergogna - shame - when describing the performance. It's true, it's not easy to find motivation in a game that doesn't decide anything, but surely the likes of Milan Badelj, Nenad Tomovic, Micah Richards etc. want to play in more important game in future. With this attitude, it's not going to happen. The thing that worried more, though, was Juan Cuadrado's performance. The Colombian was nervous, completely out of the game. Montella subbed him already after 23 minutes.
If we can talk about anything positive from this game, there are two things. First, this defeat is pretty much meaningless in terms of results. We are through to the next phase of the Europa League and that's that. But hopefully, losing to a mediocre Belarus team at home could be a good wake up call for some players.
The other, much more pleasing thing about this soon to be forgotten match is - Simone Minelli. The young forward, born in 1997 was by some distance the best in Fiorentina, and came close to scoring a goal on two occasions and assisted for the consolation goal, scored by Marko Marin. In some ways, Minelli resembles Juan Cuadrado - short, very quck and technical. It's, of course, way too early to do that kind of comparisons, but what the hell, after the game like this one, what else can we do?