These were exciting times at Empoli FC as we’d established ourselves in Serie A, were beginning to challenge some of Italy’s bigger sides, and were edging towards the latter stages of the Europa League.
We made another huge sale offer in January 2027 as Leipzig paid £25m for holding midfielder Luca Lipani, who signed for £6m 18 months ago. The squad immediately got unhappy, but we moved swiftly to replace him with João Paulo for £13.75m from Palmeiras, who helpfully has Irish second nationality. And we brought João Veloso back to the club on loan from Spurs for the rest of the season.
A Busy Run Of Matches
2027 began in pretty dominant fashion as Nelson Weiper scored twice in a 3-1 win over struggling Venezia. We backed that up by going to Sassuolo, who finished 4th last season, and claiming a brilliant 2-0 win through homegrown midfielder Jacopo Fazzini and Weiper. A busy spell of six games in 20 days in February began with a dire 0-0 at home to Roma. Weiper scored twice to down Salernitana away before a lucky 2-2 at home to Sassuolo. But we were good at home to Palermo as the giant front two of Weiper and Sebastián Miglioli (6’4 and 6’6) combined for the opener and in-form Adam Bakoune teed up midfielder Franco González’s winner.
Miglioli was beginning to show his potential, scoring twice and creating the other for González in a 3-0 win at Venezia. However, the goalkeeper injury curse hit again as Ignacio de Arruabarrena somehow broke his wrist catching a ball. I had to rest players, partly due to some ridiculous Serie A scheduling and a really tough conclusion, but mostly because our focus was largely on our European adventures.
Europa League Excitement
We wrapped up qualification from the Europa League league phase thanks to a González double securing a late win at Sporting. That allowed me to fully rotate for the final game and we only lost 1-0 at home to Trabzonspor. But we finished in a pretty impressive 6th place.
Austrain side LASK, who defeated Lille in the playoff, awaited us in the round of 16. First up was a trip to a very snowy Linz, where Veloso finished off a superb team move before they scored a penalty. Back in Italy, we controlled the game but only won 3-2 led by a brace from the in-form Miglioli.
We were off to France next to take on Nice, in what turned out to be a thrilling first leg. We got a flyer as Big Mads Rasmussen headed home at the near post from a corner. But Nice turned the game around, we got level through striker Stiven Shpendi then Nice went 3-2 up only for Weiper to immediately equalise. And we looked to be earning a draw before a cruel late Nice winner.
We were much the better side in the return leg but struggled to put our chances away until the smallest man on the pitch González headed home at the back post after an hour. Nice grew into the game and hit the bar with a great chance but found Primoz Kompara in inspired form to take it all the way to penalties. Both teams scored their first spot kicks, we scored our second but Kompara saved from Diouf. Dzenan Pejcinovic tucked away our third then Kompara saved again as Boga put one down the middle, giving Admir Arap the chance to be a hero and he didn’t let us down to claim a semi-final place.
German opposition was up next as we faced Stuttgart in the semis. The first leg was at home and a 30-yard González strike gave us a flying start on four minutes. He nearly repeated the feat two minutes later, hitting the base of the post, but we failed to capitalise on the great start and allowed Stuttgart to equalise. However, just as I was about to take Weiper off, he immediately restored our lead then González steered home from the edge of the box to seal a huge 3-1 victory.
We lost Bakoune with a groin injury from that win but I rested the entire 11 for Milan. We had a bright start in Germany as Shpendi smashed a shot off the bar, Weiper had an effort well saved and we prevented Stuttgart from having a shot in the first half. They grew into it after the break but we extended our lead as a free kick found Weiper at the back post and he headed down for Diego Coppola to head home. Four minutes later, the big striker won a penalty from a corner and stepped up to slam it into the corner. Stuttgart offered nothing and we eased 5-1 on aggregate. Empoli were going to the Europa League Final!
Europa League Final!
The Europa League Final was by far and away the biggest match in Empoli’s 107-year history, given the club has never played in any final of any sort and its only success of any note is three Serie B titles. So the small town of Empoli was absolutely buzzing for a week during the countdown to the big game.
Thousands of fans flocked from Tuscany north to London Stadium to take on another German side in Bayer Leverkusen. The Germans had some dangerous players like Patrick Schick, Talles Magno, Florian Wirtz Victor Boniface and our former midfielder Alexsander. We had a few injury issues, such as Bakoune being nowhere near fit and Fazzini picking up a knock. So we lined up:
Starting XI: Kompara; Rasmussen, Quaresma, Coppola; Gram, Degli Innocenti, Cacace; Veloso, González; Weiper, Shpendi
Subs: Miglioli, de Arruabarrena, Barreira, Fazzini, Fuschi, Paulo, Álvarez, Palacios, Pajcinovic, Arap, Fernández, Bakoune
We saw zero highlights in the first half and one in the second as the worst final of all time ended 0-0. But I brought Miglioli on for Shpendi and the giant striker made the difference, latching onto Weiper’s cross to tap home after 100 minutes. I went a little more defensive but Leverkusen broke our hearts as Ryan Sessegnon skipped past two challenges to equalise in the 116th minute. So another penalty shootout.
Leverkusen went first and scored through Grimaldo and Weiper did the same. Hofmann and Alexsander scored as did González and Veloso. Schick was up next, but that man Kompara thwarted him with a huge save, then new boy Paulo cooly put us 4-3 ahead. Sessegnon scored to put the pressure on fellow goalscorer Miglioli. Could he etch his name into Empoli folklore? I couldn’t look but the screams from our fans told me that yes… he could! Miglioli and Kompara were the heroes and Empoli were the winners.
Empoli FC won the Europa League!!
This is a ridiculous achievement, winning the Europa League and qualifying for the Champions League with a squad with an average age of just 21.71. Weiper was named Europa League Young Player of the Season and was in the Squad of the Season along with Coppola, Bakoune and the heroic Kompara. It’ll absolutely set up the club for the future, with any financial challenges we were facing 12 months ago long forgotten about.
Away from the European adventures, we somehow stumbled into a 6th-place finish despite a pretty awful end to the season domestically. And that set a new club record for the highest-ever league finish. But I really couldn’t care less about Serie A from March onwards.
Analysing The Best Season In Empoli History
We had the 6th-best attack in Serie A (71) and had the highest conversion rate (19%) and highest xG overperformance of 17.21, despite only having the 16th-most shots (361, 9.05 per game) and 13th-most shots on target (167). We also had the highest cross completion (21%) and our 11 goals from corners was only bettered by Milan’s 13. We also had the 6th-best defence, only conceding 51 despite having the 7th-highest xGA of 65.49, and only conceded four times from set pieces.
We again had the fewest yellow cards in Serie A, this time going one better with just 37 all season, which is ridiculous. We committed the fewest fouls (369) and made the most blocks (257) but did give away six penalties, and only four three teams gave away more. And a reminder that all this success is while having the third-lowest salary per annum of just £20m – which is one-ninth of highest spenders Milan.
Weiper led the way again this season with 21 goals in 42 games, including six in 11 in Europe. There were plenty of goals from elsewhere though as González got 14, Miglioli and Shpendi got 13 and Fazzini got 10. Shpendi led the assists with 13 followed by Cacace (12), Bakoune (11), Miglioli (9), Weiper (7) and González, Fazzini and Duccio Degli Innocenti (6). We also had 10 players average 7.00 or higher.
One of those was 19-year-old Primoz Kompara, who came through our first youth intake at the club. He got an average rating of 7.10 from 33 appearances in all competitions and is progressing at a rapid rate. But he was exceptional in Europe, keeping six clean sheets with a 7.35 average rating in 12 matches.
We got another good batch of youngsters following in his footsteps with the youth intake producing four players of 4.5-star potential or better. The pick of the bunch was probably midfielder Mirko Provaroni, who became Empoli’s youngest-ever player aged 15 years 322 days against Lazio, along with attacking midfielders Joseph Ali and Angel Tsvetkov and striker Andrea Palmisano. Other promising talents include right-back Mauro Gallina, midfielders Davide Di Coste and Matteo Brondi and brilliantly named striker Tommaso Superbi, who I’m sure will be a ‘superbi’ player.
So how do we go about building on leading Empoli to Europa League glory? Honestly, I don’t think we can, but I’m really excited to see what we can do over the summer and how the rapid success affects our financial situation.
How will we go about strengthening the squad? And can Empoli succeed in the Champions League next season? Join us on Monday to find out!
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