Following a memorable night in Paris that saw the Juventus Women's First Team return to the Women's Champions League group stage, Coach Massimiliano Canzi and the Bianconere's attention swiftly turned back to domestic matters, with Fiorentina visiting Biella for Matchday 4 of the Serie A season.
Kick-off in Biella is set for 18:00 CEST on Monday, 30 September. Below is what Canzi had to say ahead of the game.
DELIGHT IN PARIS
“We feel like we’ve achieved something good, you just need to look at the reaction to being drawn against PSG to understand how well we’ve done to beat them. We can only be happy about it, and this is going to be a full-on season. Getting into the group stage of the Champions League allows us to compare ourselves with really strong sides.”
THE CHAMPIONS LEAGUE DRAW
“We’ll come up against two sides with huge reputations in Bayern Munich and Arsenal, and they’ll be great occasions. As well, Valerenga are a very good team and they’re in really good shape coming towards the end of their season, it’ll be a tough group and we’ll have to do our best to manage our physical and mental energy levels.”
FIORENTINA
“Psychologically, we come into this game knowing our strengths and our quality. But we’ll come up against a team who have also enjoyed a perfect start to the season and we know it’ll be tough. We’re not coming into the game in our very best shape, we played both games against PSG without some important players and with [Barbara] Bonansea who wasn’t fully ready but still played a decisive role. I like to think that we’re still not at our best.”
KEYS TO THE GAME
“Fiorentina are a team who try to play football, they don’t have a real point of reference for us to work off, and they play a very ‘Spanish’ kind of football. They’re into their second season with their coach and that gives them an edge at the beginning of the season because they’re not starting from scratch. They have Sebastian De la Fuente in charge who, on top of being a good coach, is a great man who can build strong bonds with his players, and having him as coach is a huge strength for them.”
“We went through a few weeks when it looked like we had a big problem with conceding goals, and then we only conceded two across two games against a top-tier side and Champions League semi-finalists in PSG, so everything is relative. I expect that Fiorentina will base their game on having possession, while we’ll try to target their strong points, limit them, and hit them on the break. Counterattacking is something that, because of the skillsets of the players we have, we can be very dangerous with. It’ll be a tough game.”