September 15th, 1999
Toldo's redemption

The number one's happiness: "Now I'm feeling a bit better"

by Gianluca Monastra

"I gave back to the team, to the supporters, what I had taken away on Saturday with the 
mistake I made in Reggio Calabria. It was hard for me to bear the weight of that mistake. 
Believe me, it was a hard blow. Now I'm feeling better after this penalty I saved. Well, but 
I had a feeling during the week that I would play a good game. I had promised that to 
Trapattoni". The saved penalty not only saves the result and the Champions League debut. It 
erases the bad move from last Saturday against Reggina and those two points less in the 
Championship that were still burning.
"During the week Taglialatela and I - explains Toldo - 
had trained on penalties, studying the main Arsenal penalty takers' moves. Then it was a 
surprise, though, when Kanu came over, I wasn't really expecting that, I didn't think it would 
be his duty to kick. But in that moment I thought: well, now anything cah happen". What 
happened is that Toldo saved the ball, for the first Champions League point. "A point earned - 
he goes on - because Arsenal proved to be a very strong team. We played our game. More on the 
wait than on the initiative. We exposed ourselves very little, we defenced bravely and firmly, 
trying to start again in counter-attack to surprise them with our strikers".
Good intentions. 
Half turned into reality, though, as they were killed by many players', especially the most 
awaited, shaky conditions. "It's not easy to play every two days - defences Toldo - every year 
the teams that go on in the Cups suffer a lot and at times they stumble into poor performances. 
To play with the national team, then in Serie A, then again in the European Cups, you cannot 
always be at your best. We saw that against Arsenal, and it could happen again going on with 
the season".

Taken from La Repubblica
www.repubblica.it
English translation by Maddalena (www.acfiorentina.net/enricochiesa)