Lecce come to town. Can Cittadella continue their great home start?

A 4-1 thrashing at the Stadio Ciro Vigorito on Tuesday night is the most recent result for Cittadella. Through the two road matches so far, the Granata have yet to pick up a point, but are now returning home this weekend facing a difficult Lecce team.

Cittadella have been perfect at home so far. Including their Coppa Italia win in mid August, the Granata have won 4 straight at the Stadio Pier Cesare Tombolato. Scoring eight goals in those four matches, in the league they have taken care of business with home games.

Lecce will be another big test. Coming into the match, they themselves had a big win on Tuesday as they beat Crotone 3-0 away. Though a slow start to their season, Lecce could be starting to get going.

The defeat in Benevento last Tuesday made Cittadella players, coaches, and fans bitter, because despite dominating the match for large parts, no points were taken at full time. Goalkeeper Luca Maniero, who got his first start of the season, feels empty after the defeat.

“Nothing like this had ever happened to me before. I too wonder how it was possible and I answer that football is also this.” Maniero explained to trivenetogoal. “Until 2-1 we were playing a great match in a difficult field, inside I was convinced that at least we would have drawn, but I thought we would have won.”

Maniero speaks for all Granata fans. Cittadella created 16 chances on the night and had opportunities to score. Benevento were lethal on the break, and Peruvian striker Gianluca Lapadula proved to have too much quality for the Cittadella defense.

Using the loss can hopefully make the entire team hungry for more. With a tough few weeks upcoming, home games are great opportunities to get points, especially now having the fans back in the stadium. A win would see Cittadella register 12 points in this Serie B season, all of them coming from the Tombolato.

My prediction? Well, it’s another game, and another opportunity to move closer to the Serie A dream. I believe it will be an intense match, and a well fought game between the two sides. It will finish 1-1, with Simone Branca getting the goal in the second half.