Montella: Fiorentina have a competitive squad in Europe and Italy

Date: 17th September 2014 at 6:50pm
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Fiorentina coach Vincenzo Montella was positive on the day before his side’s opening Europa League test at home to Ligue 1 outfit Guingamp.

The press conference was also attended by Viola midfielder Alberto Aquilani who said the side will not look down at the Europea League and the player also said too much has been made of the situation surrounding his contract.

“We’re at the start of the Europa League and we’re very motivated,” said Montella to the press.

“We want to do well against a side that are doing well in Ligue 1, the intention is to try and win, we’ll try to repeat the good things that we did against Genoa on Sunday.”

Aquilani was reluctant when asked to discuss his contract which expires in June 2015:

“Too much has been said about it, including things that are not true.”

“My contract runs out in June and so far there hasn’t been any official contact.

“The club knows about my availability but there have been other priorities.

“When the time is right I will speak with the club, on my part there is the maximum possible willingness to talk.”

The Gigliati’s coach was also asked about how he feels knowing that the game against Guingamp will be his 100th on the bench for Fiorentina:

“It’s a nice milestone, it means that we’ve played a lot.”

“Tomorrow we’ll look to improve upon what we did last year, we want to move forward and it’s a goal of the club that images of Fiorentina are exported abroad.”

Aquilani was also asked about how the squad feels about the European campaign:

“It’s an important objective, we won’t turn our noses down at it.”

“I believe that you can see that based on the games last year against Juventus, I would do same tournament again but perhaps with Juventus in the middle.”

Montella then responded to questions about whether he will make changes based on what he has seen in Serie A against Roma and Genoa:

“Nothing will change.”

“I would like to see the same team as against Genoa when we controlled the game for 90 minutes.

“From the Roma game I would like to see the side that played in the second half where we deserved a draw.

“We are heading in the right direction.

“We are competitive enough to move forward in Europe and in Italy.”

The Viola coach was also asked about whether he feels excited about the prospect of taking on a smaller club such as Guingamp who play in a stadium that has a capacity higher than the town’s population:

“These are beautiful things in football,”

“In Italy there’s Chievo, Empoli but also Castel di Sangro from some years ago.

“It’s one of the best things about football: the representatives of the city aren’t just dependant on how many people live there.”

 

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