Conference League: On the field at 9 pm Olympiacos - Fiorentina live stream

On the pitch in Athens, at 9pm, live broadcast between Olympiacos and Fiorentina, conference league final

Vincenzo Italiano gathered all his players in the middle of the Agia Sophia Stadium in Athens, where the conference league will be decided tonight in the match against Olympiacos. He first recalled what happened in Prague last year.

Losing finals teaches you how to win them, or at least that is the hope of the coach, the team and the city who will pause tonight to exorcise the nightmare of last year, when Fiorentina lost to West Ham and hope for a different finale.

“Revenge,” as described by the coach who (barring Sunday’s unrelated match against Atalanta) is likely to be on his last outing as Fiorentina coach, at the end of a three-year cycle that can be remembered simply as positive or victorious. : Everything will depend on the match that will be held at the AEK Stadium in Athens. Many of those who will be the champions tonight in Prague were also present and the bitterness that arose when it seemed that everything would have to be decided in extra time is still well imprinted on the minds of captain Biraghi, Bonaventura, Terracciano and the others who were on the pitch or on the bench.

That is why, on the eve of the match, Italiano chose to be more of a captain than a psychiatrist. He knows, like Themistocles at Thermopylae (the site of the historic battle between the Greeks and Persians a few kilometers from here), that it is better to excite his soldiers than to think too much about strategies. And also because strategies, after all, are not difficult to determine: Fiorentina is technically stronger, better organized and has the advantage of experience. He has been coaching it for three years, and Mendilibar has led Olympiacos for three months.

The Greeks will have a strange field factor on their side, more moral than effective: in theory, in reality, they play in their own city, Piraeus is connected to Hagia Sophia by metro line 1, but they are in a hostile field, as they are the home of their arch rivals AEK. The things that need to be done to win it, according to Italiano, are fairly simple: “Build a lot and be concrete, have maximum danger awareness, maximum concentration in everything you do, and pay attention to all the details. Don’t give up our identity and play with anger.” competitive”.

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Belotti is supposed to start in attack, behind him are Kwame, Nico Gonzalez and one of Beltran and Bonaventura, with Nzola hidden in the second half. Bonaventura’s position, which can also be used in midfield, is one of the team’s doubts on the eve of the match: but it is certain that Jacques will be the protagonist from the first minute, also because of his desire to show off against Spalletti. He made a mistake in not holding him accountable at the expense of the European. The defensive structure will also be important, because Olympiacos’ attack is terrifying, especially with Al Kaabi, the Moroccan striker who found a second young man on the shores of the Aegean Sea and led his team to the final with two goals, overthrowing Aston Villa. There will also be someone who made people dream in Florence, like Stefan Jovetic: he should not have played from the first minute and he has already said that even if he scores he will not celebrate out of respect for the purple colours. From Florence there will be about 10 thousand people. Among them is President Rocco Commisso, who arrived with his wife to present the cup to his friend, Fiorentina General Manager Joe Baroni, who died suddenly last March. In Florence, 30,000 will be in Franchi, and the others will be in front of the television or giant screens waiting for this “blessed joy,” as Italiano described it. Raise in the skies of Athens that cup which Florence awaits with desperate love.