Bari with their backs to the wall must only win. Playoffs and salvation: a long and terrifying night in Cittadella

BARI - The verdicts, there, one step away. Finally, it must be said. We can't stand getting on and off the championship "bus" anymore. We're almost at the end credits and no one can yet have a clear idea of ​​what Bari really is. A limit, undoubtedly. At this point in the season, the values ​​are usually well defined. It's clear who is "meat" and who is "fish".

The red and whites are an exception. Continuing to give the impression of being all or nothing. The victory against Spezia and the disastrous fall in Cosenza, the peaks of an unstable performance that sounds like the clearest lack of a leap in quality. And if in the first part of the season Longo's team had given the feeling of being able to become something intriguing... the second part has told almost only of brakes, even mental ones. Bari has not grown, from whatever latitude you look at things. The game has not improved and not even the personality. The offensive phase has saddened, the athletic one has weakened. A half disaster, in short. After a load of illusions that certain aggressive outbursts had created in the heads of the fans, today sad and disillusioned.

The trip to Cittadella is much more than a crossroads. Winning would mean staying in the playoff race. Drawing or losing would almost certainly mean saying goodbye to the objective. A "playoff" for two, though. And that's not a detail. The Venetians are at risk of relegation and there don't seem to be any credible alternatives to winning the three points. Tacticalness, yes. But not that much, in short. Above all, there will be a need to push on the accelerator, trying to quickly read the various moments of the match. No one should expect a demonstration in the style of "arm wrestling". Nor to admire a score that recalls Inter-Barcelona, ​​first leg and second leg. There will hardly be room for a master of the game. The mission is, if anything, to take the match by bringing the episodes to their side.

Longo's long silence lends itself to various types of evaluations. But they would be rumors, or something like that. These days, quite combustible material. So it's better to look beyond. Hoping that the players are a team to the end and that with the coach they become one, in the supreme interest of the whole great Bari family.

The absences of Maita and Benali are very heavy, two three are essential despite their not exceptional condition. The feeling is that Longo can adapt a winger to the middle of the field, to be a mezz'ala. Dorval, Oliveri but also Favasuli himself. The imperative is to run, fight, sacrifice. It is no longer a question of names or game systems.