Mission accomplished, Hellas Verona are immediately back in the top flight having ended the season in 2nd position. Promotion was the only goal set at the beginning of the season, they hit the target, even if the campaign was a bit different from what had been expected. Considering that, despite relegation, Hellas managed to keep most of the players, that means they could count on a very competitive team made of higher category players and that during the summer transfer market they further strengthened the squad taking on loan important players, the gialloblu were the clear favorite to win the title as the quality gap with all the other teams in the league seemed enormous. The only unknown issue was related to coach Fabio Pecchia who until last year had only had experience as assistant coach. The first part of the season had led to thinking that in fact the Veneti would have no rivals, too stronger than the others, they won most of the first matches with a certain ease and also displaying a brilliant football. Pecchia seemed to have immediately found the right alchemy fielding the squad with a very attacking 4-3-3 system of play. Anyway, quite unexpectedly things changed, at the end of November a couple of defeats managed to undermine all Verona's certainties, they still kept the leadership but have not played anymore with the same confidence of the beginning. From this moment on, no longer seeming invincible, they had to struggle almost every match even if often succeeded. Towards the end of the season they experimented their darkest period, didn't win for some weeks and, one month from the end, slipped in 3rd position with the specter of the playoffs that materialized in front of them. Fortunately they managed to regroup immediately and also with a bit of good luck (Frosinone lost the penultimate match suffering a goal at the 94th minute!) reached the 2nd position (actually they shared the same position with Frosinone but had an advantage in the head-to-head games!) that meant direct promotion. It must not have been easy for players and coaches face a season in which were considered the clear favorites, any little misstep was pointed out by supporters and the press, so it was normal that at the first hesitations they lost self-confidence. Moreover, some important players have missed much of the season because of serious injuries, including experienced defender Nicolò Cherubin, striker Juanito Gomez and midfielder Franco Zuculini. Some other fell short of expectations, like playmaker Marco Fossati and forward Simone Ganz. Conversely forward Giampaolo Pazzini gave the contribution expected by scoring 23 goals (he won the title as top scorer of the league), fantasista Daniel Bessa showed his great skills as passer player and also as goal-scorer having hit the target 8 times. Till the break of the cruciate ligaments also midfielder Franco Zuculini gave a valid contribution as well as his brother Bruno, who arrived in January.
