Vincenzo Italiano is glad Fiorentina ‘achieved the first target’ of Conference League qualification and turns his focus to stopping the ‘warship of a team’ that is Inter.
It kicks off at San Siro on Sunday at 17.30 UK time (16.30 GMT).
This has already been a packed start to the campaign for the Tuscans, who had to overturn a 1-0 first leg defeat to beat Rapid Vienna on Thursday and qualify for the Conference League group phase.
“We are very happy to have got through the preliminary round, as it was the first important target of the season and we are truly pleased to continue in Europe after a great team performance,” Italiano told the official Fiorentina channel.
“Those fixtures used up a lot of energy, so we will evaluate everyone’s condition and try to cause problems for a warship of a team like Inter.
“We are already the first Italian team to be playing fixtures on Thursday and Sunday this season. Now that first target has been achieved, we will try to improve.”
These sides had several very close games last season, including a 4-3 thriller, a 1-0 win at San Siro and the Coppa Italia Final back in May.
“Inter are a warship of a team, like every year. We are on their turf, it is sold out and extremely difficult. So far they have only won and not conceded a single goal, but this is only Week 3 and there’s a long way to go. We will try to build our season, one game at a time.”
Fiorentina reached the Final of the Conference League last season and begin their group phase this time around against KRC Genk, Ferencvaros and FK Cukaricki.
“We really wanted to be in this competition and be protagonists in Europe again,” added the coach.
“Our opponents are well-prepared and study how to neutralise us, so everything is more complicated in this competition.”
Fiorentina visit Inter without suspended Maxime Lopez, while Jonathan Ikone, Antonin Barak, Abdelhamid Sabiri and Niccolò Pierozzi are injured.
Fiorentina squad for Inter: Terracciano, Christensen, Martinelli; Dodò, Kayode, Milenkovic, Quarta, Ranieri, Mina, Biraghi, Parisi, Comuzzo; Duncan, Mandragora, Amatucci, Bonaventura, Arthur, Infantino; Kouamé, Sottil, Gonzalez, Nzola, Beltran, Brekalo, Kokorin