Vincenzo Montella thanked President Rocco Commisso for “defending me and the team” after Fiorentina won their Coppa Italia tie with Cittadella.
The Viola managed to beat Cittadella 2-0 despite seeing Lorenzo Venuti sent off after just 26 minutes, so will face Atalanta in the Round of 16 next month.
Vincenzo Montella thanked President Rocco Commisso for “defending me and the team” after Fiorentina won their Coppa Italia tie with Cittadella.
The Viola managed to beat Cittadella 2-0 despite seeing Lorenzo Venuti sent off after just 26 minutes, so will face Atalanta in the Round of 16 next month.
“It was a difficult match and we started a bit shaky, perhaps because of our poor recent results, then after a goal and at least four scoring opportunities, the red card changed everything,” the coach told Rai Sport.
“This just made our desire to win and sacrifice ourselves for the team even clearer. I am very happy for Marco Benassi, as he has suffered more than anyone lately and deserved his brace.
“It’s a young team, that is the choice we have made, but often people lack patience.”
President Commisso was in the stands and for the first time got to see his team win in person at the Stadio Franchi.
“The President has been exceptional in defending me and the team, even though we made him suffer a bit tonight too,” continued Montella.
“I see also that other clubs with far higher ambitions are struggling even more, so it’s all relative. We did very badly against Cagliari and Verona, but at least proved with Lecce that we wanted to turn things around.
“Perhaps it is not a coincidence that after the excellent six weeks, we had some difficulties after Franck Ribery’s ban and Federico Chiesa’s injury.”