Fiorentina marked the fifth anniversary of Davide Astori’s death with a moving video shown before their match with Milan and the crowd united in tribute at the 13th minute.
This was never going to be a normal match, as tonight is the fifth anniversary of the death of Viola captain Astori.
He went to sleep in the team hotel the night before a Serie A game against Udinese and never woke up, taken by an undiagnosed heart condition.
The emotions were already running high before kick-off, when a video was shown on the screens depicting some of Astori’s moments in the Fiorentina jersey.
The coach at the time of his death was Stefano Pioli, who returned to the Stadio Franchi on this anniversary in charge of Milan.
Both Pioli and current Fiorentina captain Cristiano Biraghi have ‘DA13’ tattoos to commemorate Astori.
Because his shirt was 13, traditionally the crowd applauds at the 13th minute of every game at the Stadio Franchi.
On this occasion, both teams stopped and joined in the standing ovation for Astori for a full 60 seconds.
There were also thousands of flags with Astori 13 and a huge banner reading: ‘Davide eternal captain.’