Cristiano Biraghi compared Fiorentina coach Vincenzo Italiano to Antonio Conte and the Viola tactician admitted he is ‘pleased’ by the full-back’s words.

The Viola captain played 26 times in Serie A under Conte at Inter in 2019-20 but returned to the Artemio Franchi the following season.

Italiano arrived ahead of 2021-22 and the captain spoke about the similarities between the new coach and his former chief in an interview with La Repubblica.

Fiorentina have bounced back from a difficult year under Italiano, and currently sit seventh in Serie A ahead of the big game against Juventus on Saturday and sit three points above the Old Lady.

Biraghi explains why Italiano is similar to Conte

The former Spezia coach was asked about the comparison to Tottenham Hotspur’s new tactician and revealed he was ‘pleased’ by the words and stressed he’s always ‘working to avoid losing’.

“I’m pleased to be compared to such a strong and winning coach,” Italiano said at a press conference. “Then, when the players say it, I think that they are often sincere and often they really say everything they think.

“I thank Biraghi for that. Nobody likes losing. I was born with the fact that not winning will make me feel bad. It’s something I want to avoid if I can.

“Over the years, however, you have to work with defeats because they make you mature and fix situations you need to fix.

“Losing is not something that makes me happy. If the lads have perceived this, I hope that from now on they will try not to make me feel bad.

“We have some defeats we could have avoided, and we are working to avoid them.”

Fiorentina arrive after a 3-0 win against Spezia last time and are confident ahead of the match against the Bianconeri, who are winless in three consecutive league games.

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