Alberto Aquilani

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.

The Napoli manager Walter Mazzarri has assured fans that the club will be back despite the problems faced by them in recent weeks. It was only a few weeks ago that Napoli were challenging for the title along with Juventus at the top of the table.

However, many incidents have happened since then including points penalty for the team. A couple of the Napoli players were found guilty of being involved in match fixing back in the 2009 season, which has led to the club being penalised two points now. This coupled with a poor run of form has meant that they have fallen 10 points behind leaders and are currently in the fifth position.

Despite this, the manager is confident that the club will be back to winning ways once again and will be at least able to finish in the Champions league positions come the end of the season. Mazzarri has questioned the decision taken by the Italian football Association to penalise Napoli by two points for the mistake done by two players more than three years ago. The case will now be going to the tribunal and a decision is set to be announced later in the season. For now, Napoli have the content with the fifth position in the table.

“It’s a difficult moment, but I’m certain that the team will get back on the right path. We’ve identified the reasons behind our dip. We’ll see against Siena if the things we have discussed are applied. I don’t have a magic wand, but I can guarantee that the squad will give everything that it has. Despite the points penalty, we have more points now than at the same stage last season,” said the Napoli manager, whose team has had just two victories in the last five matches.

The Fiorentina manager Vincenzo Montella has refused to reveal whether the former Liverpool midfielder Alberto Aquilani will be part of the starting line-up when Fiorentina take on Genoa in Italian Serie A in the midweek action.

Fiorentina have made a great start to the new season under the new manager Vincenzo Montella. However, it has also meant that the summer signing Albert Aquilani has seen very little first-team action so far. He has started just two matches for the Italian club since completing his move from Liverpool in the summer. The 28-year-old, though, made his return from a long-term injury problem in the 1-0 win over Lazio recently.

In the pre-match press conference, Vincenzo Montella was asked the question whether Albert Aquilani would start the match or not. However, he refused to reveal the status of the midfielder and give an advantage to the rivals. Fiorentina are currently fourth in the Italian Serie A table after having won the last four matches without exception. They have 24 points from the 12 matches played, and they could easily overtake Inter Milan if results go their way in the coming weekends. This is a far cry from the relegation threatening season they had last season.

"I won't tell you whether he will play or not. I don't want to give them any kind of advantage. We are just all happy that a player of his calibre is at our disposal," said the Fiorentina manager ahead of the Genoa match. The next few weeks will be extremely tough for Fiorentina because they will be featuring the likes of Milan and Atalanta in the league. However, because they can only focus on the league without any distractions from European competitions, Montella has said that he does not see a reason why they cannot challenge for Champions league positions.

The Fiorentina midfielder, Alberto Aquilani, has been ruled out of the team for two weeks due to his Achilles injury. Aquilani has been struggling with this injury since the start of the season, since joining the club for a reported £6m (according to Liverpool news).

He hasn’t started any match for Fiorentina in the current season so far and he came to play as substitute only in two matches. He was supposed to be included in Fiorentina’s first XI for the match against Catania which is going to be played on 16th of September. But, the manager of Fiorentina, Vincenzo Montella, has made it clear that Aquilani would not play in the match against Catania. There hasn’t been any improvement in his injury and he needs to rest for a few days.

As per Montella, The doctors have suggested Aquilani to rest for at least two weeks, otherwise, the injury could get worse. The team management wants him to play in more and more matches, but, he can’t be included in the first XI unless he is 100% fit. He is a terrific player. That’s why the club has invested in him. But, unfortunately, he has had some fitness issues due to which he hasn’t been able to serve the club as much as he would have wanted to do. Hopefully, the rest for a couple of weeks would help him in regaining 100% fitness.

Aquilani himself said that he is gutted after being ruled out for a fortnight. As per Aquilani, when you join a new club, you don’t want to miss too many matches. You want to feature in more and more matches and make a mark. But, unfortunately, he has struggled with injury during his 1 month tenure at Fiorentina so far. Hopefully, it would not take him too long to make a comeback.

Following Liverpool's horrendous start to the Premier League campaign at the weekend, there have been concerns that Brendan Rodgers' men could continue their struggles in Europe. However, Liverpool legend Graeme Souness disagrees with such views, claiming that the Reds will be far too strong for their opponents Hearts on Thursday night.

It would be fair to say that Liverpool struggled in their first leg tie in the previous qualification round of the Europa Cup, after only managing to scrape a 1-0 victory against FC Gomel. However, they did manage to perform much more successfully in the second leg and after recording a 3-0 win, expectations for the new campaign were high. Still, following the defeat to West Brom at the weekend, some supporters have doubted just how seriously Rodgers will take Europe with the club's league form clearly needing extra attention.

However, according to Souness, there shouldn't be any worries. Speaking to the media, the former Reds captain said, “I just feel Liverpool will have too much quality in too many areas and I think that will decide the tie. Hearts would need more than half the Liverpool team to have two off nights to have a chance. There is a gulf between the Premier League in England and the SPL in Scotland right now. Although Liverpool aren’t the force they were, they’re still arguably the second biggest club in England.”

It is already being reported that Rodgers will rest several players for the tie, with the likes of Steven Gerrard, Luis Suarez, Glen Johnson and Martin Skrtel supposedly not even traveling to Scotland. With Jose Enrique also still injured, Rodgers is likely to turn to some of the club's younger players, while Andy Carroll could also be called upon as the club try and take the advantage to the second leg at Anfield.