Andrea Sottil had plenty of praise for his players, the staff and the fans after a concerted effort saw the team come from behind to defeat Hellas 2-1 in Verona.
“The mentality we're building here is the same one we've been working on since day one,” the coach began. “I think we had our best first half of the season and yet somehow we found ourselves behind at the break. We just set our minds on turning it around. The lads who came off the bench did really well. It was an excellent performance.
“At half time we shared our thoughts and realised it was a test of our maturity. I had nothing to reproach them other than being a bit more clinical, but that's part and parcel of football. Sometimes you're not quite accurate enough, other times it's the goalkeeper pulling off fantastic saves. We kept playing our game and bided our time without leaving ourselves open to the counter. The lads deserve a lot of credit but we must continue like this.
“You always have to plan for 100 minutes. You have the 11 that start and then the subs, whose job it is to come in and up the tempo while offering something different. I'm lucky to be in charge of a strong squad that works hard every day for themselves and for their team-mates. You build your identity on the training ground and I expect my players to be as focused in training as they are in the match. Credit must go to all the backroom staff as well as they are top-quality too.
“The fans were exceptional. They turned out in numbers again to get behind us today– not that I'm surprised. I know what the Friulian fans are like.”