Vincenzo Italiano gave credit to Bologna after their 2-0 win over Fiorentina but admits their second goal made him ‘angry’. Goals from Riccardo Orsolini and Jens Odgaard condemned La Viola to defeat in the direct clash for European football next season. Italiano’s men remain in eighth place in the standings, with 37 points, and at the end of the match, he spoke with DAZN about the game and where he thinks his team went wrong:
“We had prepared the match with strong aggression because they are in good shape and take risks, they have confidence and are good at catching you out by creating superiority. We dirtied a lot of balls and could have done damage. We tried everything to limit them, but they were very good. They didn’t allow us to be effective and counterattack; it was a recovery, and we could have added points. But it’s still long; let’s roll up our sleeves.”
The Fiorentina coach then continued: “We wanted to take away possession in all areas of the field and have Arthur as the playmaker on ball recovery. And that’s how it was because Ferguson would drop back. We played the game; in the second half, we went man-to-man, forcing the presses, on 3-4 occasions, we could have hurt them. We conceded the second goal when the game was already closed.”
Finally, Italiano argued: “At this moment, Orsolini has a very high capacity to be concrete. Giving him space was one of the few mistakes; he punished us. We know what we have to do; we found our way, but tonight we found a strong opponent. Nico doesn’t have more minutes than those played; he needs to improve his condition. To try to win, we tried everything; we wanted to repeat the performance against Frosinone, but we found a strong opponent. Let’s start over by rolling up our sleeves.”
Then the Viola coach concluded: “The 2-0 was the only occasion when they came forward in the last half-hour, a goal like that makes me very angry.”
