Cittadella embarrassed at home against 9 men Monza

No excuses, no explanations. Despite having not one, but a two player advantage, Cittadella throw away three points at the death.

This was the most embarrassing loss I have seen from Cittadella since I’ve being supporting them.

There’s no reason why we concede a 92nd winner against a 9 men Monza team who played for the draw since losing their two players. Simply put it, there’s no excuses to make for this performance. We were poor on the day, and this brings major red flags to the team.

Everyone knew this was a big opportunity for Cittadella to edge closer to a playoff birth. Against a Monza team who’s form has dipped recently, Cittadella were poised to get what would’ve been a huge three points at home.

They never had a better chance than in the second half to make that statement true. In the span of four minutes, Monza received two red cards, leaving Cittadella with an incredible numerical advantage of 11 vs 9. With the score at 1-1, the Granata had 30 minutes to just score one goal against a team that held onto the draw from that point on.

Chances came for Edoardo Gorini’s men, but nobody could find a way past Michele Di Gregorio. Frustrated, Cittadella pushed harder for a goal, with a draw not being good enough for having a two man advantage. A lapse in concentration from left back Daniele Donnarumma put Patrick Ciurria through on goal. The substitute slotted it past a hopeless Elhan Kastrati, stealing an unlikely win from the Stadio Piercesare Tombolato.

For a team with promotion ambitions, this game put a lot of doubt into the dream with ten matches to go. It’s an unacceptable loss, and Gorini knows it.

“Undoubtedly it’s a bad blow, we didn’t manage to do what we should’ve been able to do after remaining with a numerical advantage.” Gorini said to triventogoal.it after the final whistle. “We had to move the ball on the flanks and flush them out, but we didn’t succeed.”

Gorini listed a lineup witch consisted with Mirko Antonucci on the sidelines. Antonucci, perhaps Cittadella’s best playmaker in the attack, started once again on the bench.

Monza wasted no time getting out and looking for an early goal. Fullbacks Carlos Augusto and Pedro Pereira were active in getting up the wing, but Danish striker Christian Gytkjaer had a great opportunity just ten minutes in. Put in behind by a long ball, the striker was put through on goal, but a late defensive effort by Nicola Pavan was enough to end the play.

The visitors eventually found the opener minutes after Pavan’s heroics. A corner from the right was flicked on at the near post, and Mattia Valoti had the easiest of finishes to put Monza into the lead.

From that goal on, however, we saw a very good response from the Granata. After the goal, the defense held Monza’s attack on the quiet side, with limited chances. Enrico Baldini had a side footer that was pushed away by Di Gregorio. Alessio Vita had an opening from outside the box, but was always sailing over the bar.

With some possession and quick thinking, Cittadella were able to work their way into Monza’s penalty box, with Pavan once again leading the play. A clumsy tackle saw the referee point to the penalty spot. Baldini sent Di Gregorio the wrong way, equalizing Cittadella with eight minutes until halftime.

Things were about to get spicy just after the second half whistle. First incident was with Carlos Augusto. The fullback tackled Mamadou Tounkara that prevented the striker on getting into the free space. Referee Marco Piccinini saw enough there to give Augusto his second yellow, and limiting Monza to ten men.

It got worst for the Biancorossi just four minutes later. This time Giulio Donati was the player involved for the visitors. A late tackle on Daniele Donnarumma–though it looked minimal with the contact–gave Piccinini no hesitation for his second double yellow of the game. In the span of four minutes, the game shifted in favor of Cittadella. Up two players for the remaining thirty minutes, the Granata had half an hour to win the match.

Tension built around the Tombolato from the 1,657 fans in attendance. Now all the pressure was on Cittadella to get three points. Anything less would be a disappointing result.

This also gave Monza a chance to slow the game down, and frustrate Cittadella in any way possible. A low block defense, time wasting, and substitutions, it made Gorini’s men unable to get a real shot opportunity.

It was looking like a 1-1 draw with stoppage time approaching. Cittadella struggled in the attack against the 9 men of Monza, who were desperate to bring home a point. Then, seemly out of nowhere, Donnarumma got caught with a lapse in concentration, and gave the ball directly to Patrick Ciurria. Through on goal, Ciurria calmly passed the ball by Kastrati, putting the dagger in Cittadella. Monza won it at the 91st minute, with a stunned Cittadella home crowd.

There’s a lot of things to blame in this match: we didn’t make enough chances, Antonucci came in late, Donnarumma messed up, all that stuff. But this is the second time we’ve seen Cittadella have a massive advantage given to them in an important match. Just like in the playoff final against Venezia, the Granata were given a man advantage for an hour, yet couldn’t find a goal that would’ve put them in Serie A. Today against Monza was similar: up TWO men with thirty minutes left, Cittadella couldn’t muster up a decent scoring chance. And worst of all, it isn’t two points dropped, it’s all three lost.

There’s no doubt Antonucci was put in the match way too late. A player who is very creative in the attack, Antonucci created new ideas for Cittadella in this game, but only had five minutes to do so.

“Antonucci’s change late? I entered all the fresh players, [Antonucci] was one of those who had played the most.” Gorini continued after the match.

Even without Antonucci, the players on the field were good enough to score against 9 men Monza. It just simply wasn’t good enough, and the ending was the cherry on top.

Ten matches now remain in Cittadella’s season. We have ten finals up until May to at least try to sneak into a playoff spot. Who knows if this team is worthy of Serie A competition. It’s almost safe to say the top 2 spots are unlikely, so Cittadella will have to do it through the playoffs.

It’s a huge disappointment with the showing on Saturday afternoon. In match where Cittadella were gifted an opportunity to win, they chucked it away and pressure continues to rise on the club.

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