Palermo Coach Roberto Stellone thanked the fans after beating Frosinone 2-1 and warned the second leg of the promotion play-off final is the last “step.”
Camillo Ciano had opened the scoring with a rocket from 30 metres, but Antonino La Gumina and an Emanuele Terranova own goal turned it around.
Palermo Coach Roberto Stellone thanked the fans after beating Frosinone 2-1 and warned the second leg of the promotion play-off final is the last “step.”
Camillo Ciano had opened the scoring with a rocket from 30 metres, but Antonino La Gumina and an Emanuele Terranova own goal turned it around.
The second leg is at the Stadio Stirpe on Saturday and any Frosinone victory, even just 1-0, will be enough to put the Canarini into the top flight, as they have the superior record in the regular season.
“It wasn’t easy with Ciano’s great goal after five minutes. We fought hard and never ran any risks after that, so I think the victory is fair for the number of chances that we created,” Stellone told Sky Sport Italia.
“We’ve got to evaluate the players and their fitness levels. Struna hadn’t played for a while, so we need to look at a few situations.
“I am very happy with those who played and their teammates cheering on from the bench. I said we’d try everything to win, now we can go into the second leg with two results out of three open to us, but Frosinone have done really well and we won’t take anything for granted.
“It was a convincing victory and we’ll now start preparing for the second match.”
The Stadio Barbera was packed with almost 30,000 tickets sold for the big game.
“The fans gave so much support and held us up during the difficult time in the first leg when we were trailing and struggling to score.
“We’re all doing our part and more, in training and during the match, so we’ve got that final step to make.”
Stellone was only appointed by Palermo on April 28, as Bruno Tedino had already taken them to the play-offs when he was fired.