Empoli, a feat is needed to stay up. 12 points are needed to stay in the category

by Simone CioniEMPOLIThe arrival of the last break before the final rush of the championship allows us to take a snapshot of the situation of the salvation flew which is also registeredEmpoli. Como and Verona start with 29 points, followed by Cagliari with 26 and immediately after by Lecce and Parma with 25. Then come the Azzurri with 22 and Venezia who have climbed up to 20. We can therefore assume a safety quota of around 34/35 points, but even less could be enough. There will be 9 days left until the restart, or 27 points available. Calculator in hand, therefore, in these last 810 minutes of Serie A Empoli must find at least 12/13 points. They need 4 wins, like all those obtained so far, or 3 successes and at least 3/4 draws. In practice, captain Grassi and his teammates will have to get a result in half of the next matches. An undertaking that, in light of what has been done in the last three months, seems truly titanic.

Starting from the away game in Como on Saturday 29 March, in fact, D'Aversa's team should change pace significantly after only three points earned in the last 14 games (0,21 on average). More in the ropes, although equally difficult, if we instead think about Empoli in the first part of the season, where with 19 points in 15 games at an average of 1,26 points per game they kept a pace closer to what will be necessary from now until the end to celebrate yet another 'miracle': between 1,33 and 1,44 points per game. What has distinguished the Azzurri's path so far, compared to their competitors for the same objective, has been the enormous discrepancy between the results of the first three months and those of the following three. A trend also caused by a good dose of negative episodes, even if then, if all the matches have more or less the usual trend, it is logical that bad luck can no longer be a mitigating factor, but the too many errors committed come into play, which you cannot afford in Serie A. Only Parma has in fact had a significant decline, going from a point per match obtained in the first 15 days to an average of 0,71 in the following 14. Regular instead Cagliari and Lecce (from 0,93 to 0,85 the Sardinians, from 0,86 to 0,85 the Salento ones), while both Como and Verona as well as Venice itself have actually gone up (from 0,8 to 1,21 the first two and from 0,6 to 0,78 the lagoon ones). The calendar can be an ally of the Azzurri with the direct confrontations still all to play, except with Lecce, four of which in that Castellani-Computer Gross Arena which as never happened before will have to become an impregnable fortress. Much, however, will depend on the recovery of the injured, net of the unavailability now until the end of the season of Pellegri and Haas and the return in April of Sazonov.