Palladino: "Proud of the semi-final. Riera was not respectful with me"

Florence, 17 April 2025 - Mission accomplished, with a pinch of suffering but Fiorentina overcame Celje and reached the Conference League semi-final against Betis (first leg on May 8st in Seville, return on the XNUMXth in Florence). Mister Raphael Palladino analyzes the evening of his team. "There are positives, but I also look for the areas to improve. We achieved our goal, playing an excellent first half. These games must make us grow to understand that we cannot leave too much space to the opponents and preserve our game. We are happy to have passed the round, I am proud to have brought Fiorentina to the semifinals". What do you need to improve? "At the first moment of inattention we lowered ourselves, we must understand that we must never lose our nature. We are a team that wants to control the game, express our qualities. We must understand the moments of the game to grow". Kean was decisive again this evening. “You know how much respect and trust I have in him, we have to thank him for what he is doing. He makes quality plays, like today's goal. The thing I like about Moise is that he always has the right attitude, he is a leader. But it is not just Kean, it is the teamwork that makes the difference and that supports him”. Now Betis in the semi-finals... “The mental component is fundamental for footballers. When we face big teams, we focus 110%, while when you play against smaller teams you risk taking it a bit lightly, without paying attention to the details. Now we know that we are facing Betis, a great team. Our dream is obviously to go all the way”. Pongracic has a midfielder's foot... “We really wanted Marin when we sold Milenkovic because we think he is very strong. In the three-man defense I imagined him as a center, but then training him I understood that as a third he is even better. Initially he wasn't very convinced, but he has everything to do it: quality, speed, disruption”. Riera didn't have nice words for her... "I don't listen to what he says, colleagues need to have respect and he didn't have it on the way there. That's all." More on the match. "We had a great first half, prepared well as we wanted to do it. The team had control of the game. We took them high and I was satisfied. Then they were good, we conceded a goal with this inside cut that we had prepared. Then they came back to mind in moments from a few months ago. We have to be mature to understand the moments, otherwise you risk throwing the game away. The objective was to get through the round, let's take an Italian team back to the semi-finals". Alessandro Latini