The manager of Fiorentina, Vincenzo Montella, has praised his side for showing great fighting spirit in the recently played Serie A match against AC Milan.

Fiorentina was down by 2-0 and there were only 20 odd minutes to go in the match. Also, La Viola were playing with only 10 guys because Nenad Tomovic was shown the red card in the 40th minute of the match.

Fiorentina earned a couple of penalties in a space of 7 minutes in the later part of the second half and managed to convert both those penalties.

On the first occasion, Adem Ljajic took the shot and he smashed it straight into the net. The Milan goalie anticipated the ball to come towards his right and he dived in that direction. But, his anticipation was wrong. Ljajic played a straight shot and gave his team a lifeline with that terrific goal.

On the second penalty which was earned by Milan in the 73rd minute, David Pizarro was asked to take the shot and he didn’t miss the target either. With a tremendous shot, he made up for the mistakes that he had committed earlier in the match.

The scores remained equalized till the referee blew the final whistle and Fiorentina got one point.

In the post match press conference, Montella said, “We showed great mental toughness and fought back from a very difficult stage. This shows that the boys have got self belief and they are quite prepared to fight their way out of any situation.”

“With one player short, it was not easy. But, if you are determined and composed, you can do anything and that’s what we showed in the match today.”

Fiorentina is currently at no. 4 in the Serie A points table with 52 points in 31 matches. They have just 6 points less than AC Milan.