Fiorentina director Joe Barone denies reports they were battling Napoli for Cyril Ngonge ahead of tonight’s Supercoppa Italiana semi-final. ‘I do not see us signing a new striker.’
It kicks off at the Al-Awwal Park in Riyadh at 19.00 GMT.
You can follow all the build-up and action as it happens on the LIVEBLOG.
The winner will be decided tonight after 90 minutes or go straight to a penalty shoot-out, without extra time, then face either Inter or Lazio in the Final on Monday.
“Our President Joe Barone is watching us from home,” Barone told Mediaset.
“We found last season very gratifying, it is an honour to be here as part of this new format. We did very well last term and this is a result of that. There is a long way to go, this is one of our objectives for this season and we’ll see what happens over 90 minutes.”
The Viola are in this tournament as runners-up, having lost the Coppa Italia Final to Inter last term.
Nico Gonzalez is out injured and it had been reported that their target to replace him was Cyril Ngonge, but the Hellas Verona winger underwent a medical with Napoli instead today in a deal worth €18m plus €2m in bonuses.
“We have immense faith in the whole squad and the coach. With Ngonge, Fiorentina were not after him, so I do not want to kid anyone here, we were not active on the player.
“Our transfer market is all about the details, we have patience, but also a great deal of confidence in the current group of players.”
There are other forwards who are linked with the Viola, including Juventus striker Moise Kean, as Lucas Beltran and M’Bala Nzola have barely managed to find the net between them.
“Our director of sport is working, talking to everyone to get an idea of the situation. We are very satisfied with what Beltran and Nzola are doing, admittedly we are not getting as many goals as expected from the centre-forwards, but the team is still fourth in Serie A, through to the Conference League Round of 16.
“Talking about bringing in a new striker mid-season is honestly not something I see happening, but we’ll wait and see what happens at the end of the season.”
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