Rolando Mandragora is aware that Fiorentina will need to play a ‘perfect game’ to overcome their 3-0 defeat against Crystal Palace in the second leg of their Conference League quarter-final tie, but he has warned the South Londoners that ‘we believe in the miracle. ‘
The Viola will welcome Palace to the Stadio Franchi at 20:00 BST on Thursday evening, seeking a strong performance to recover their 3-0 loss at Selhurst Park last week.
Palace is the bookies’ odds-on favourite to win this season’s Conference League title, but Fiorentina are two-time finalists looking to atone for what has been a mostly miserable season on all fronts.
Mandragora previews Fiorentina vs. Crystal Palace second leg: “Difficult, but we believe in it”
“We’ve managed to stay alive and are still in the running. It will be a difficult task, but we believe in the miracle,” Mandragora said during his pre-match press conference on Wednesday (via TMW).
“We’ve frequently mounted comebacks in the second leg in the past few years. Perhaps now is the time to do it ourselves. Of course, we’ll need the ideal game, and Palace will capitulate to us. It will be tough, but we believe in it. “
Mandragora expects that the support from the home crowd at the Stadio Franchi will inspire the players on the night.
“We can accomplish anything with the help of our fans. We didn’t want to disappoint them with that result in the first leg. However, the performance was there for the most of the game, and there were opportunities. Even if they are powerful and complete, we will attempt to play our game at home. “
Fiorentina are currently five games unbeaten in Serie A and have finally begun to appear safe from relegation, sitting eight points clear of the relegation zone after their 1-0 victory against Lazio on Monday night.
“It’s been a one-off year, and the celebration last night was a sort of liberation, even if it’s not finished yet,” Mandragora remarked.
“We didn’t anticipate to have a season like this. We had very different goals at first, but we had to be humble to alter them. It wasn’t apparent that we’d be in this scenario. “
Despite the 3-0 loss at Selhurst Park last week, Mandragora maintains that he did not detect a significant difference in class between Premier League and Serie A teams.
“I truly don’t notice a difference in quality,” he said. Of course, the Premier League is top, as is Serie A, with its advantages and disadvantages. Every game has its own narrative, and the first leg indicated that they were superior than us. We’ll see whether we are superior than them in the second.
