Franco Cervi reaches three league goals for Celta Vigo in 1-1 draw vs. Levante

By
Roy Nemer
-
22

Franco Cervi reached three league goals this season for Celta Vigo in their 1-1 draw vs. Levante.

Cervi has been getting consistent playing time this season with Celta Vigo and opened the scoring for the club on Tuesday. A cross into the penalty area found the on runner Argentine who headed it and scored to give Celta the 1-0 lead.

The 27 year old joined Celta in 2021 after spending five years with Benfica.

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22 Comments

  1. Unfortunately its too late for him. Lucas Boys is performing even much better. However my worry is on our Argentina strikers. Lautaro Martinez is on bad form of late, Giovanni back to his default setting. Only Angel Correa who has shown consistency.

    Talking of Giovanni Simeone I think scaloni was right to snub him. The guy is very slow despite good at finishing. I don’t except to see new faces come Qatar 2022 unless in in case of injury.
    I miss those days where Argentina strikers would score 25+ goals in their respective leagues. That’s why I have massive respect for the likes of Aguero, Higuain, Messi( who was a playmaker).

    The only Argentine player am optimistic can hit 20 goals is maybe Correa. Lautaro I highly doubt it.

  2. Lo celso played good again as expected from him. I think we need a lo celso like playing consistent good football in atleast 90% matches rather than a celso playing an excellent 2 matches and another 5 to 6 bad matches. This is good we need not want his finishing skills but that controlling tempo in the middle which will help the NT with de Paul. Yeah eventually he should score for the club in respective of his position. Go celso

  6. Amazing article from The Athletic on Cristian Romero:

    Typical Romero: Saturday’s defensive masterclass sums up exactly what Conte’s Tottenham have been missing

    Cristian Romero began Saturday’s match against Manchester City with a clipped pass out to Ben Davies to start the move from which Dejan Kulusevski ultimately scored the opener. He ended it with a 98th-minute block to prevent Kyle Walker’s low cross from reaching Bernardo Silva at the far post. In between, he was booked for pushing and shoving at a corner, and gave away a penalty after flinging himself at Silva’s cross.

    Typical Romero, really.

    This is a player whose class, commitment and combustibility make him impossible to take your eyes off. He was a big miss for Antonio Conte between November and February, and his return has made a huge difference. Especially with the return of Eric Dier, whose presence in the middle of the defence allows Romero to play as a right-sided centre-back. At Atalanta last season Romero, played in the middle of a three in 75 per cent of Atalanta’s Serie A matches (compared with 24 per cent on the right), but, as we will discover, the latter position feels like the perfect fit for Conte’s Spurs.

    Romero has already made a big impression at Tottenham and after his superb showing on Saturday, it is an appropriate moment to take stock and assess how important he could be in the coming weeks and months to Spurs’ top-four chances.

    From the moment he arrived in August, everyone at the club has been very impressed. Even when the team were struggling under Nuno Espirito Santo, the Tottenham coaches were confident they had signed one of the best five centre-backs in the Premier League. The term “Rolls-Royce” (an unnecessarily detailed discussion of which can be found here) has been used at the club. It’s worth remembering that some Serie A insiders were predicting last summer that Romero’s impact on Spurs could end up being as transformative as Virgil van Dijk’s at Liverpool and Ruben Dias’ at Manchester City.

    We’ve not yet seen enough of Romero to know, but that early positive impression he made on Spurs’ coaches has only grown in the subsequent months. He has established himself as a leader in the dressing room, doing so without being the most vocal (though his English is improving). The other players look up to him and he comes across as much older than 23. Romero’s dad jokes that he already looks about 30, but it’s not just his appearance — it’s also how serious and focused he is.

    Romero possesses a natural authority, and when on the pitch, has a permanently simmering menace — no bad thing for a Spurs team that have for too long carried a reputation of passivity. Jose Mourinho called them “too nice” when he was managing the club.

    Conte loves Romero’s attitude, describing him as “perfect” for the Premier League earlier this month. The old cliche is true, here — his return from that three-month injury has been like bringing in a new signing. Romero is no stranger to hitting the ground running after an injury — he started the Copa America final, helping Argentina to the title, in July, having not played since the group stage because of a knee problem. His performances in the final and the rest of the tournament were so good that Lionel Messi recommended Romero to Barcelona.

    Thankfully for Spurs, he ended up in north London, and over the last few weeks has belatedly been able to show Conte just how effective he can be. It was telling last week how Conte responded when asked if Spurs would be turning their loan for Romero into a permanent deal at the end of the season. “We bought him!” Conte said, having been reminded that technically the deal is a loan followed by what is essentially an obligation to buy in the summer.

    Romero possesses many qualities and showcased them against City on Saturday. He can pass out from the back far more effectively than Davinson Sanchez, and this was key in allowing Spurs to not keep returning possession to City. It also led to Kulusevski’s goal. As Dier said: “We tried to play out every time from Hugo Lloris, or even when we recovered the ball. Cristian is a top player and he is adapting very well to the Premier League. It’s really enjoyable to play with him, he’s a very good guy as well.”

    Romero was also involved in Kane’s winner — stepping into the opposition half and playing a pass into Rodrigo Bentancur that the Uruguayan swept into Kulusevski’s path.

    As well as distribution, Romero relishes the physical side of the game. Watching him up close, you can see he often lasers in on one opponent who it seems he has decided it’s his mission to destroy. On Saturday, that player was Ilkay Gundogan, who was on the end of some tough tackles from Romero, including three within five minutes at the start of the second half. The second of these left Gundogan on the floor writhing around in pain.

    In his comeback game against Brighton earlier this month, Romero’s target was the cocksure Neal Maupay. Romero set about taking away the striker’s swagger with a series of hard but fair challenges. Maupay was sufficiently frazzled to later try a dink past Lloris that failed miserably. Back in the Nuno days, Romero enjoyed the battle against West Ham’s Michail Antonio in October. In the same game, he stood over Pablo Fornals, who he felt had gone to ground too early.

    The pantomime villain element to Romero’s game has drawn comparisons with Erik Lamela.

    Sticking with that theme, Romero likes to tackle with as much force as he can possibly get away with. In that Brighton game, there was a moment he came across to dispossess Tariq Lamptey, and did so while forcefully, but legally, dumping the right-back to the floor.

    Next time you’re at a Spurs game, keep an eye on the way he sprints towards the halfway line when Lloris clears the ball, as if building towards the moment he can pounce on an opposition attacker.

    Perhaps this is partly why playing as a right-sided centre-back suits him better, as he enjoys being able to leave his station in the back three. And when he’s dragged into the channels he is very effective — on Saturday he did an excellent job helping Emerson Royal shackle Joao Cancelo and Raheem Sterling. Romero helps Royal in many other ways as well, giving him far more security than when Sanchez plays. It wasn’t a coincidence how much more assured Royal looked at the Etihad knowing he had the footballing equivalent of an extremely tough and savvy security guard by his side.

    Not that Romero is immune to overstepping the mark. This is a player, after all, who was sent off in just his second game for Genoa in October 2018. Across his three seasons in Italy, he picked up 39 yellow cards and three red cards in 102 games. He was substituted on several occasions last season for fear he would pick up a second booking.

    For Spurs, he was sent off in Conte’s first game against Vitesse Arnhem. It remains to be seen whether Conte will try to tame this side of Romero’s game, and whether he will be successful. He may decide the aggression, even though it can become a hindrance, is too integral a part of Romero’s game to try and neuter.

    Either way, the return of Romero, along with Dier, is potentially game-changing for Conte and Spurs. The Italian made the point last week, unprompted, that the centre-backs had only played together once in the league under him before Saturday. Having the calmer, more conservative Dier in the middle provides the platform for Romero to become Conte’s attack dog on the pitch. It helps, too, that the pair can communicate in Spanish. It’s been useful, too several other people at the club speak his native language.

    He has lots of rough edges to smooth out but Romero looks like he will help to solve Tottenham’s defensive shakiness and perennial lack of bite… while being extremely entertaining, and a bit terrifying, to watch

    • Cuti has been by far the best CB prospect from Argentina this last two decades & infact he has the ceiling to be among the greatest defenders of all time.
      Please for god sake, don’t compare him to Garay!!!
      Also I know Spurs is not the best player to win trophies, but what I think is that he has the mindset and competency to cut it out.

      And I believe it’s better for him at Spurs at this moment, coz he will be defending against fast-paced attackers in the PL week-in week-out, which might help him to fix his loopholes asap and enhance his quality to the next level. He might not be able to win trophies this season at Spurs, but surely he will be developed more & that’s what we need for the NT.

    • What’s your opinion on Marcos senesi. I strong gly believe believe his defensive quality is better than that of Martinez quartz and pezzella. Why does scaloni ignore him?

  7. Yet another Rosario native. Always liked the guy. Started as a no 10 but can really play in many positions. Under Coudet he is mostly playing in central midfield of 3. I think these days he is more of a box-to-box player if I am not mistaken. Have to watch more games with him. At 27 he is in his prime right now.

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