Twenty-four hours before his birthday, Mattia Croci-Torti received the gift he’d been hoping for from the team: a hard-fought away win, built on organisation, focus and team spirit. In his post-match comments at the Letzigrund, the bianconero coach began by highlighting the value of a performance which, in his view, stemmed first and foremost from the work done throughout the week. “It was a lovely gift from the team, who were truly organised and disciplined from the first to the last minute,” he notes, before extending the credit to the coaching staff as well. “I think we won today because the match was well prepared by my entire staff and executed even better by my players.”
This assessment also takes into account the significance of the moment. The victory against Zurich does not, in fact, stand alone, but comes at a delicate juncture in the season, on the eve of the Championship Group. This is why Croci-Torti stresses the importance of the message sent from Letzigrund: “We hadn’t won two games in a row since mid-January, and we hadn’t won an away game since Lucerne, also in January. Today, if we wanted to give ourselves a boost to reach Europe, we absolutely had to come here and win.” In this light, the manager is also pleased with the team’s response following their recent matches against Grasshopper, which had not fully convinced him: “Today I am very, very happy because we interpreted the game well and really played it as we should have.”
At the same time, Croci-Torti acknowledges that, particularly in the first half, Lugano were still lacking something in the final third. “We lacked that bit of quality to be even more dangerous: you can’t keep getting there and then miss the final pass or the cross. We have more quality than we showed.” Then, however, credit must also go to a team that continues to believe in the game plan and finds the right move at the decisive moment: “In the second half, we did well to score at the first opportunity.” A goal that came from a move practised in training, underlining the importance of daily work: “Nothing comes by chance in football. Everything that happens happens because you train. Training is the real strength of this team.”
The conversation then turns to the final stretch of this season. Croci-Torti doesn’t beat about the bush and reiterates: “We’ve had a clear objective since the start of the season: to bring European football to the new stadium. And that is my mission, the mission of those who are working for this shirt right now, and we’ll keep going until we’ve achieved it.” It is a statement that sums up well the spirit with which FC Lugano enters the decisive phase of the championship: with three more points, with a rediscovered away win and with a direction strongly reaffirmed by their coach.