Fiorentina are through to the semi-finals! Defender Fabiano Parisi describes the result as a great achievement for the whole team but says now it is time to focus on the next match against Cagliari.

Fiorentina played well, were resilient and slowly earned their Conference League semi-final.

“Yes, it’s our third year in a row, so quite an achievement. We’re a strong team and we’ve done it again. We’ll be up against a great team in the semis but we’ve reached our goal today. We need to keep going like this.”

You’re starting games more regularly now than you were at the start of the season and today you played a key role once again.

“Today everyone played a great game. The coach has believed in me throughout the season and I’m happy because I need that trust, I need to play, I need the team’s energy supporting me on the pitch. We’re happy we’re through to the next round and now we’re focused on Cagliari.”

Fiorentina scored some great team goals today.

“Over the week we worked on whatever could hurt our opponents. Especially the first goal: from a throw-in we moved the ball to the other side of the pitch, [Marin] Pongracic played a through ball to [Rolando] Mandragora and he did a good job scoring the goal. These are moves our coach has us practice during the week.  We understand what he has in mind and we need to keep going like this.”

So you’re off to the semi-final and on Sunday you’ll be flying to Cagliari for another important Serie A match.

“At this stage of the season all matches are important. We need to make sure we’re in good shape for the game. We have to keep doing what we’ve done so far. The match with Cagliari will be very tough, as was tonight. They were well organized. We did a good job staying focused on the game and holding the score. Now we’ll push on.”