“I think of Prague last year, we faced it in the best way but some episodes didn’t allow us to rejoice. I don’t want to see the same faces again, no one gives you the certainty of being in the final the following year. Tomorrow we have to taking the field as if every ball was the last of our career. It hurt me, the players and the whole city, so we will try to turn the situation around.” This is an excerpt from the press conference of Vincenzo Italiano, coach of Fiorentina, on the eve of the Conference League final, the second in two years for the lily team. In 2023 came a 1-2 defeat against English West Ham, in Prague in the Czech Republic, with a goal from Bowen at the end of regulation time that still populates the fans’ nightmares. This year it’s Athens, against Olympiacos. Which many identify with the capital of Greece, but the truth is that the red and whites are from Piraeus, the port city near Athens, with its own mayor and its own separate administration. So here, we can say that Mendilibar’s men will play close to home, but certainly not at home. Also because Agia Sophia, the final stadium built in 2022, is home to rivals AEK Athens.
HOW MANY MOTIVATIONS – A new awareness, after the defeat a year ago. Fate wanted to give Italiano a second chance to end his career with Fiorentina in style; no one confirms, no one denies, but the truth of the facts is that Ribera’s coach is at the dawn of his last two games in Viola, the final and then the championship recovery against Atalanta, useless for the purposes of the Serie A verdicts with all due respect to Lazio and Rome. Biraghi and his teammates must win for themselves, to honor the memory of poor Joe Barone, to bring the ninth Italian team to Europe in 2024/25, accessing the Europa League and making Torino climb into the Conference. To bring a trophy back to Florence after 23 years (Italian Cup 2001), and in this case a continental trophy after 63 (Cup Winners’ Cup 1961). The AC Milan fans say that after Istanbul there is always Athens, referring to the defeat in Turkey and then the victory in Greece against Liverpool in the Champions League final between 2005 and 2007. Could this also be true for the Florentines? LIKE THE SPARTANS IN PLATEA – If we want to fictionalize it, it’s a bit like the Spartan army between Thermopylae and Plataea: first the resistance at the end of the defeat of the Fourteenth against a stronger opponent, the Persians, then, in the plain of Plataea, here the revenge, with a Panhellenic army and a landslide victory. Who knows, maybe it will go just like this, and all (or almost, rivalries are sacred) of Italy, as well as all of Greece at the time, will shout for joy. Or not, and then it will be psychodrama with the third final lost out of three in two years. But even if this were the case, it would not compromise too much the quality of the work of Vincenzo Italiano, who took a team fighting for salvation and in three years has firmly placed it back in the atlas of European football. THE PROBABLE LINEUPS – And then let’s see the probable lineups for the final: Mendilibar, the Basque coach of Olympiacos, has announced that he has very clear ideas, so let’s put his ideal team on the field: the only run-offs can be on the left, between Ortega, returned from an injury a few days ago, and Quini, and in the middle of the pitch, between the more static Iborra and the more dynamic Horta. El Kaabi is confirmed in front, top scorer of the tournament with 10 goals. Fiorentina’s lineup depends on Bonaventura, who scored last year in Prague: if the former Milan player plays in the midfield, then a run-off on the midfield between Barak and Beltran; if instead the attacking midfielder is Jack himself, there will be room for Mandragora next to Arthur. OLYMPIACOS (4-3-3): Tzolakis; Rodinei, Carmo, Retsos, Ortega; Hezze, Iborra, Ciquinho; Fortounis, El Kaabi, Podence. All. Mendilibar. FIORENTINA (4-2-3-1): Terracciano; Dodo, Milenkovic, Quarta, Biraghi; Arthur, Mandragora; Gonzalez, Bonaventura, Kouamé; Belotti. All. Italian. This page contains affiliate links. When you sign up for a subscription through these links, we will receive a commission.Follow Olympiacos-Fiorentina live on DAZNWATCH ON DAZN
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Follow Olympiacos-Fiorentina live on NOWSAVE YOUR NOW WHERE TO SEE OLYMPIACOS-FIORENTINA ON TV – Olympiacos-Fiorentina, valid for the Conference League final, will also be broadcast live on TV by DAZN. Streaming through PCs, smartphones, tablets, smart TVs, game consoles (Xbox and PlayStation) and devices such as TIMVISION Box, Amazon Fire TV Stick and Google Chromecast will be available via the DAZN app. Furthermore, it will be visible live on TV on Sky Sport, as well as live streaming on NOW and Sky Go.
