Italiano: “I would play the final with Olympiacos again tonight, we were convinced that we could beat them”

Statements after his last game as coach of Fiorentina were made by Vicenzo Italianotaking stock of his journey with the “viola” and saying goodbye to players and fans, while once again expressing his great bitterness for the lost final of the Conference League against Olympiakos.

What the Italian coach said in detail:



On his departure from the team bench: “It’s been three wonderful years that will allow me to leave different than when I arrived. I leave full of experiences. Many thanks to the club, the players I coached and all the Fiorentina fans. The trip for me, even if we didn’t get a trophy, was great.

This is football. We move on, but the relationships we made will last forever. I decided to leave because when you reach a certain level and you can’t go any further and the environment demands more effort, I think it’s time to leave. I think I gave it my all, we have to move on and leave room for new ideas and new thoughts. That’s what I told the president. We all made this final decision together a few weeks ago. When you reach a certain point, you have to stop. I’m leaving improved, I hope I’ve left something with this team, I think it’s been three positive years”.

On the saddest moment of his career with Fiorentina: “I would play again tonight in the final against Olympiakos. We were all convinced that we could beat them. We all thought we could make it to the end of the cycle, but we didn’t. The saddest moment was losing our manager Barone, the worst since I’ve been in football. The love we had for him drove us to an emotional end. I wish I hadn’t experienced this tragedy. There were some memorable moments in the dressing room thanks to the words of the captain and manager. New pages are opening in football. In my opinion it was three great years. Both myself and the boys in these three years have made great progress”.