Italiano and Fiorentina tip hat to Bologna

Vincenzo Italiano gives the credit to Bologna after Fiorentina capitulated 2-0 this evening, but ‘there is still a long way to go’ in the race for Europe.

This Week 21 fixture was rescheduled from last month so that the Viola could play in the Supercoppa Italiana semi-final, which they lost 3-0 to Napoli.

Their form recently has been poor and it showed in the 2-0 defeat at the Stadio Dall’Ara, with Riccardo Orsolini and substitute Jens Odgaard on target.

“We had prepared the game to be very aggressive, because Bologna are in good shape and like to take risks, they like to take men on and create overloads,” Italiano told DAZN.

“We blocked off many passes and could’ve hurt them more. We tried to do everything we could to limit them, but Bologna played really well. They did not allow us to be efficient or to go on the counter.

“It was our game in hand and we wanted to pick up points, but there is still a long way to go. We must roll our sleeves up.”

Fiorentina were just two points behind Bologna going into this match, but are now five adrift of them and Atalanta in joint fourth place.

“Their second goal was the only time in the last half-hour that they even got close to our penalty area, so conceding a goal like that really makes me angry.”

Substitute M’Bala Nzola had a couple of opportunities off target, but it was in midfield where Italiano was most frustrated.

“We wanted to stop Bologna passing it around and have Arthur as a playmaker, which was working until Lewis Ferguson dropped into a deeper role. We played our game, forced the pressing in the second half and had three or four opportunities to hurt them.

“Allowing Orsolini even a tiny bit of space in his current form was one of the few mistakes we made and he punished us for it. We tried everything to win, but were up against a very strong opponent. Bologna deserve the credit.”