Alberto Aquilani

After just one win in the last four matches, Fiorentina have allowed third placed Napoli to open a 10 point advantage in the table. This will be extremely difficult to match in the rest of the season.

Hence, the opportunity to finish in the top three and qualify for the Champions League group stages next season has evaporated for Vincenzo Montella’s men. However, the Italian has said that the opportunity to win the Europa league still exists. Fiorentina will be taking on Juventus in the second leg of the Europa league last 16.

Fiorentina overcame Udinese in the semifinals of the Coppa Italia and now they have to face off against Napoli for the final match of the Italian tournament. Napoli is favorites on winning the competition as they have been a fairly more consistent team than the one guided by Vincenzo Montella.

Napoli have proven themselves to be serious contenders for the Italian league title not only in the current campaign but for the recent few ones as they persistently finish the season on the top few spots.

Alberto Aquilani has said that he wants to represent his country Italy in the next FIFA World Cup which will be played this year in Brazil.

The 29 years Old playmaker who is currently playing for Fiorentina in the Italian top flight has never featured in a World Cup. He was in contention to find a place in the Italian squad for the last World Cup, but, he got ignored eventually. That might happen again as his recent form hasn’t been top class.

The manager of Fiorentina, Vincenzo Montella, has said that his team should play with a bit more ruthless approach.

La Viola won by 4-3 in their previous Serie A game against Hellas Verona on Monday, but, Montella didn’t look that happy with the performance of his team. According to him, his team should have found the net a few more times in that game.

Talking to the reporters in the post match press conference, the Italian manager said, “I would like the boys to be a bit more ruthless, both up front and back. Yes, we won today, but, we wasted quite a few goal scoring opportunities too. We should have won this game more convincingly.”

A late goal from Alberto Aquilani gave Italy a hard fought victory when they played against Denmark on October 11th. The 'Azzuri' continued their rampant run in the qualification rounds as they sealed their spot for the upcoming World Cup.

Not only that but also a positive start in this season of the Italian League Serie A for Fiorentina in which Alberto Aquilani has played a crucial part for his team. Being featured in a consistent manner in the squad guided by Vincenzo Montella, this season started in a upbeat fashion for the former AC Milan player.

The manager of Fiorentina, Vincenzo Montella, has admitted that his team made quite a few mistakes in its last Serie A game against Parma.

Viola was stopped to draw by Parma the other day. Both the teams scored two goals each in that game.
At one point of time, it seemed as if Fiorentina would take 3 points away from that game. They were ahead by 2-1 going into the stoppage time, but, in the last few moments, they lost their focus just a bit and that cost them a couple of points. Massimo Gobbi scored the equalizer for Parma in the second minute of the injury time and made sure that his team would also secure a point from the game.

The sporting director of Bayern Munich, Matthias Sammer, has said that Mario Gomez wants to make a move to Fiorentina this summer. However, Sammer has also made it clear that Munich will not let Gomez go at a lesser transfer fee.

According to the reports, Munich wants a transfer fee of 20 million Euros for Gomez, but, Fiorentina is not ready to pay them that much amount at this point of time.
Gomez hadn’t got that many playing opportunities in the last season. Mario Mandzukic was preferred ahead of him and the 27 years old German international wasn’t too happy with that. He wants to join Fiorentina in search of more playing chances.

It is set to be an odd season for Chelsea (do they have any other kind?) with the return of Jose Mourinho to the club, and there would seem to be a lot on the line for club and manager.

Mourinho is investing his reputation in restoring the club’s fortunes, while if reappointing their most successful manager doesn’t work, it is hard to see where Roman Abramovich goes next. All this means that a lot of those interested in football betting will be gambling on what will happen to Chelsea this season, but what would be a good bet to place on them?

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.

Since his disappointing spell with Liverpool a few years ago, the Italian midfielder Alberto Aquilani has matured in recent years. The loan spells with AC Milan have once again demonstrated the ability within the midfielder, who suffered a number of injury problems after his move to Liverpool from Roma.

The midfielder recently secured a permanent move to Fiorentina, and he has been one of the main players in the resurgence of Fiorentina under the management of Vincenzo Montella. Even though Vincenzo Montella does not have a lot of experience, he has managed to get Fiorentina closer to the likes of Inter Milan and Lazio in the table.

The club still have an outside chance of qualifying for the European positions. They are currently sixth in the Italian Serie A table with only two points separating them from Inter Milan and Lazio. Aquilani has been one of the star players for the team this season. He has played 18 matches for the club in all competitions and has scored four goals. The 28-year-old has said that he is confident that he can strike a great partnership with Sissoko as well. Fiorentina managed to secure the signing of Sissoko from Juventus in the January transfer window. Aquilani knows Sissoko extremely well due to his loan spell with Juventus a few years back.

“We have to react after last Saturday's loss to Juventus. We have to absorb the criticism and start again – nothing is impossible at this stage of the season. Sissoko is a massive plus for us. We've already started a good relationship [in training],” said Aquilani after the 2-0 defeat at the hands of the table leaders Juventus. The club had recently brought an end to a poor run of form with the 2-0 win over Parma, and they will be keen to return to winning ways.