Il prepartita di Novara-Triestina

Triestina will face Novara tomorrow at 15:00 at Stadio Piola for the last matchday of the first half of the season. Attilio Tesser shares his thoughts on the game.

Tesser

"I always feel a special emotion when I return to Novara. The people here have always shown me great affection. On that field, we achieved incredible things, starting from Serie C and reaching Serie A within two years. Those were unforgettable years, and it’s always a pleasure to come back.

That said, tomorrow there’s a match to play. We’ll face a very strong team with skilled players at this level and some individuals of particularly high quality. They have a talented coach who manages to combine intensity with excellent field coverage. They are performing well; they won in Trento, breaking a positive streak that had lasted practically the entire first half of the season. They’re currently sixth in the standings and have a higher technical level than last year.

I’m not sure if the victory over Vicenza has given us an additional boost in confidence and self-belief. What matters is that we don’t take a step back. If we perform like we did last week against Vicenza, I’d be happy. The key is not to regress in terms of mentality, determination, or confidence. We need to remain aware of the hard work ahead. While we achieved something remarkable in our last game, concretely, we’ve done nothing yet.

That positive result should give us confidence; not arrogance, but confidence. With humility, we need to move forward. Tomorrow’s match will be important and challenging. I want to see that the team is present, showing the mentality they displayed in Padova, where they never gave up, and improving their play against Vicenza. They showed resilience when it was needed and demonstrated the determination to secure the result until the end. That’s the team spirit I want to see.

Struna and Vertainen had to stop for a couple of days earlier this week but have rejoined the squad and are available. The 23 players called up for last week’s training camp are all fit and will be available for tomorrow’s game as well. For the other injured players, more time will be needed.”