The fans sang their favorite Finn’s name and Joel Pohjanpalo himself celebrated his four goals shirtless with a beer glass in hand. An absolutely incredible day, says the Finn about his goal success on Monday.
It was the other day that Venezia crushed Modena 5-0 in Serie B.
Many thanks to Joel Pohjanpalo. The Finnish national team striker managed four goals before being replaced to warm applause.
The goal show took him up to joint scoring league lead in the Italian second division, along with Cagliari’s Gianluca Lapadula, he stands on 17 goals.
– An absolutely incredible day both for the team and myself. Sometimes you succeed at everything and Monday was like that for me. It was a great 5-0 victory in a situation where we needed to win, Pohjanpalo remembers General Sports.
His Venezia belongs to the middle tier of a series where the differences between top and bottom are small. The big win took the team from 14th to tenth place – the distance to the eighth place that qualifies for promotion is only one point.
Fulfilled the fan’s wish
But it’s the scenes after the final whistle that have gone viral. Clips spread on social media show how a shirtless Pohjanpalo after the match with determined steps retrieves a glass of beer from a kiosk at the edge of the pitch.
A few months ago, Pohjanpalo got a beer from the stands after Venezia beat SPAL.
– After that, the fans have repeatedly said that I should do it again. Last week I said in an interview that I can take another as it is starting to look like we are being held back in the series.
The Finn also wants to make a clarification. He would not accept a glass of beer from any spectator stranger – after the SPAL match, it was his wife who offered him a beer.
– She was a little upset that she wasn’t seen on the clips that time, laughs the Finn.
The Serie A dream lives on
Pohjanpalo still does not want to claim that he started some kind of tradition. But celebrating with the fans is important.
– There has been talk about how footballers in general have started to alienate themselves from the fans. It is for them that we play.
– It’s fun to, in addition to the experiences, also get to give them a glimpse of one’s personality and “human” sides, Pohjanpalo continues.
In Venezia you can breathe easy now again – the series place is almost secured. After a miserable start to the season, they changed coaches in November, and under Paolo Vanoli’s leadership, they have won six of the last seven games.
– After the change of coach, everything took a completely new direction. Now the result of the winter’s rough work is visible. We dream of Serie A, which is completely possible, and that gives us a lot of hope.
