A tale of two halves: Cittadella and SPAL settle for a goalless draw

All zeros on the scoreboard for the Sunday night clash between Cittadella and SPAL. Both sides had chances, but no goals were scored in a 0-0 draw.

Both teams felt like they could’ve gone on and won the match that took place at the Stadio Piercesare Tombolato. Cittadella assistant coach Roberto Musso, who was filling in for Edoardo Gorini, was content with the draw despite having opportunities to win the game.

“When you can’t win you have to try to bring home a point.” Musso told trivenetogoal after the match. “We did better in the first half, but went out in the second half. Gorini also gave us a great hand from above, we kept in touch through Donazzan.”

Musso decided to make only one change from the win two weekends ago in Frosinone. Midfielder Nicola Pavan started for Andrea Danzi in the defensive midfielder.

It was a rough awakening for Pavan as he was booked just two minutes into the match. This made the midfielder play cautiously as he tried not to get booked for a second time.

Early on both teams tried to settle in, but it was sloppy from both sides. Miss-placed passes and a lack of offense showed in the first 20 minutes. However, Cittadella slowly got into the match and grew into it as time went on. Mirko Antonucci had a wonderful opportunity to break the deadlock off Simone Branca’s cross. The ex-Roma midfielder couldn’t keep his shot down from six yards out.

Despite the lack of chances early on, the game was still there for the taking. Enrico Baldini, who was in need of a solid performance, looked dangerous in some moments of the first half. One moment came 34 minutes in off a quick counter attack. Baldini spotted the run of Antonucci down the middle, who had space to conquer. The pass was narrowly under-hit, and the chance went begging.

Cittadella did well to prevent SPAL on the attack during the first half. The defense did a good job of keeping out the likes of Latte Lath and Colombo from having real scoring chances. However, the exact opposite happened in the second half.

The Granata came out after halftime flat footed, and could’ve easily given up goals to SPAL, who changed their whole game plan at the break. Their best chance, and most likely the best chance for either team all game came in the 66th minute. Latte Lath sent a ball low back post, out of the reach of Elhan Kastrati. Marco Mancosu, who was alone at the far post, seemed to have an open goal. An amazing effort by Amedeo Benedetti saw him poke the ball out for a corner.

But SPAL kept knocking on the door. The lack of offense for Cittadella made SPAL believe they could win the match. That’s something Musso noticed, and something that needs improvement.

“When you don’t score a goal, it is clear that the offense can do more, we lacked the inspiration that we had seen before.” Musso explained. “We take this point and think about the next match.”

He was right. Cittadella weren’t threatening the SPAL defense like they were in the second half. It never looked like they were going to get a solid chance during the second half.

But during the final minutes, seemly against the run of play, Mamadou Tounkara found himself in the box with the ball at his feet. He gave it off to Davide Mazzocco, who’s shot was hit straight at SPAL keeper Demba Thiam. Much to Mazzocco’s disappointment, he had Giacomo Beretta open to his right side, with an even better angle at goal.

It felt like a 0-0 game, and it finished as a 0-0 draw. Both teams would be happy to take a point, but with feel empty handed given the opportunities they both had to win this match. For Cittadella, it’s the first draw of the season that brings them to 13 points. The draw also bumps them down to 9th in Serie B, but only three points separate 2nd place Cremonese and themselves.

Citta look to reset and focus on next weekend, where they will travel to the U-Power Stadium to face AC Monza. The match is scheduled for Saturday, October 23rd at 8am EST.