Fiorentina-Betis, Mandragora: "We will play our lives with a knife between our teeth. We want the final"

Florence, 7 May 2025 - Together with mister Palladino in the press conference on the eve of Betis there is Rolando Mandragora, one of the leaders of the group and one of the few survivors of the two lost finals. "For me and the few remaining teammates it will be an extra motivation, but everything will pass from tomorrow. We believe in the comeback, we will play our lives with a knife between our teeth. The crowd will be an extra weapon, the sold-out stadium is a source of great pride. Everything passes through our hunger to win, we will have a lot of it to take Fiorentina to the final again and have a different epilogue".

What does the Inter match leave you with?

"Congratulations to Inter, they played a generous game. They were down until injury time, they had a great attitude and the desire to never give up to take home the game. This really impressed me."

Where will this match be played?

"We will have to have a strong approach but it must be managed over the ninety minutes and maybe even over the one hundred and twenty minutes. In the end the details will make the difference. In the first leg we made some wrong choices. We really studied everything, it depends only on us and we want to play a great match".

Have you heard from the company about the renewal?

"It's not the time to talk about it, there will be time later. Now all that matters is tomorrow's match. I've felt good in Florence since the first day I arrived, in addition to getting married, it's also the city where my daughter was born. It's special to me."

What kind of Fiorentina do we need tomorrow?

"There is no particular Fiorentina to review. We have to face a new path with the coach, we have faced things off the pitch that could have divided us, it hasn't happened and indeed certain things have strengthened us. We have to think about all the work done, hoping that the epilogue is happy, we deserve it".

How proud was it to wear the sash?

"The captain is Luca, wearing the armband for me was a source of great pride and great satisfaction."

What do you think of the manager's renewal?

"We didn't need any reassurance. His renewal makes us happy and proud, it means he has done something important for us and vice versa. It will be a pleasure to work with him again. I congratulate him."

He recently got emotional on TV. 

"Behind my tears, and those of Ranieri, of whom I allow myself to speak given our great friendship, there is the desire to take Fiorentina to the top and something special in Florence. We are also people, with emotions, but I assure you that in this team no one is lacking in attitude, in presumption, we are all rowing in the same direction. And I am sure that the 22 thousand tomorrow will make themselves heard and will be worth 80 thousand, today we will meet the fans at the stadium and we are convinced they will transmit great energy to us".

She was in both Athens and Prague. What does this competition mean?

"In addition to Prague and Athens there is also Rome, I have done that too... There is great suffering, losing three finals is not pleasant. Not for me or for my teammates, the fans or the club. But football always gives us the opportunity to redeem ourselves, we want the third final in a row and we will give it our all. I was talking about a knife between the teeth and a ferocious approach, in the end we will draw conclusions".

Alessandro Latini