MONTELLA BACKS TEAM
The manager of ACF Fiorentina, Vincenzo Montella, reckons that the Europa League win versus PAOK last night would prove to be a tonic for his boys who were a little down after being defeated on their home turf by Lazio.
Fiorentina has to travel to San Siro this weekend to take on AC Milan and they would now go there feeling good about themselves after putting up a clinical show in Greece.
Although, the scorecard demonstrates 1-0, but, right from the 1st to the 90th minute, the Viola looked superior to their opponents. Juan Manuel Vargas was the man who got Fiorentina on the score sheet by slotting a rebound in the net in the first half and that was enough at the end.
Speaking in the post match presentation ceremony, Montella told Violachannel “The boys were brilliant attitude-wise which was very nice to see. You feel a whole lot of pressure on your shoulders when you lose a home game badly, but, you’ve to pick yourselves up because each game starts from 0-0.”
“I felt the boys were tiring a little bit, but, everyone was determined not to lose that lead. It surely is a morale booster, this win. We are currently leading our group, but, we can’t relax. It’s still pretty much open for every side. Yes, our chances are bright and going ahead, we would play a little feely, but, we must avoid complacency.”
Not only have the Viola won all their matches in Europe thus far, they haven’t let the opposition score a single goal against them, and this is in spite of them not managing to sign their number one defensive target in the summer (remember that Rio Ferdinand has signed for QPR).
The clean sheet yesterday was the 3rd successive one kept by the Serie A side.
Fiorentina had won both their last two Europa League games by the margin of 3-0 against Guingamp and Dinamo Minsk respectively.
