5000 made the journey on a cold Tuesday evening in December, 5000 travelled the almost 12-hour car journey from Crotone to the San Siro. It may have been the middle of the working week but these Crotone fans could not give up the chance to witness history and see their side go toe to toe with the mighty Milan.
In the end the result did not go their way but that was not the main objective of this match. If victory was the be all and end all of the night’s encounter, then Rossoblu manager Ivan Juric would not have made six changes from his starting line-up that played away to Spezia in the league on Friday night. No, victory would have been nice but it was not the ultimate goal, this was to put no finer a point on it nothing more than a scouting mission. Could they match up with the big boys of Serie A? the answer looks to be in the affirmative. So while Milan maybe glad to see the back of the Squali for now, they might very well be seeing them in Serie A in the very near future.
As I type these words Crotone sit second in Serie B only one point behind Cagliari, nobody expected them to be there, nobody expects them to remain there but as each week goes by the men from Calabria continue to confound the critics.
Crotone were founded back in 1923 by one Adolfo Asturi and hail from the city that shares its name. Situated on the coast looking out into the Mediterranean, the city is home to roughly 70,000 people. As for the football club itself its history is rather non-descript and without boring you on dates and figures it is just easier to say that they have spent the entirety of their existence pottering around the quagmire that is the Italian lower divisions.
As recently as the 1993/1994 season the club was playing in the Promozione Calabrese, the sixth tier of Italian football and also the second highest amateur level. Just to put that in a little perspective the Promozione is split into 54 regional divisions representing over 900 clubs.
The club however has grown since those days and in the year 2000 was promoted to Serie B for the first time. In the intervening 15 years it has split its time between the second and third tiers. Arguably the club’s greatest success came in the 2013/14 season when under the guidance of now Cesena manager Massimo Drago, they finished in sixth place in Serie B, the highest position the club had ever finished.
This also earned them a shot at the promotion play-offs but they quickly came unstuck against Bari. Last season would not prove to be as fruitful for the Rossoblu as they were sucked into a relegation battle, missing out on the play-out by a solitary point to maintain their status in the second tier.
Over the past summer out went manager Massimo Drago and in came former player Ivan Juric. Not much was expected of the club as they headed into the current campaign as another season battling against the drop was predicted.
However, Juric has managed to be blend a squad of misfits and talented youngsters together and has them dreaming of the big time. The sides solid defence is backboned by 32-year-old Italian keeper Alex Cordaz, who rather incredible was third choice keeper at Parma at the start of last season.
In midfield 24-year-old Romanian Adrian Stoian has proven a real find. It is up front though where their real jewels in the crown lie in the shape of Ante Budimir, the big Croatian has been hitting the net regularly this season and his loan move from St Pauli in the German second division looks like one of the transfers of the summer. Alongside him is 21-year-old Roma loanee Federico Ricci another with talent to burn.
On the face of it Crotone are not the most talented team in Serie B but they do have great team ethic which Milan found out almost to their cost. We have seen only in the past season the rise of the underdogs in the shape of Carpi and Frosinone and not long before that Sassuolo. Crotone have seen that success and want a piece for themselves.
The Coppa Italia tie against Milan was only a skirmish in a much larger war. A war that presently the men from Crotone are winning.
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