Italiano kept promise to Fiorentina players

Fiorentina coach Vincenzo Italiano kept his promise to take the players out for dinner ahead of a ‘battle’ against Torino, with Giacomo Bonaventura and Lucas Martinez Quarta returning.

It kicks off at the Stadio Artemio Franchi on Friday at 17.30 GMT.

The coach had pledged to treat his entire squad to a night out and they had that experience last night, all coming together for a sushi feast in Florence.

This has been a very long 2023, as they reached the Final of the Coppa Italia and Europa Conference League, so practically never stopped playing.

“I saw the lads rested and happy, now we have one final battle of 2023,” Italiano told the official Fiorentina website.

“We recovered some players and prepared well to face a tough opponent like Torino.”

Nico Gonzalez, Dodo and Gaetano Castrovilli are long-term absentees, but Bonaventura and Martinez Quarta are back in the squad, though it remains to be seen if they can start.

They scraped a 1-0 win away to Monza, which put them in fifth place going into the Christmas break.

“We gave ourselves a relaxed Christmas along with our families, but from tomorrow we must continue to dream and stay in this area of the table. Things are going well right now, we can’t take our foot off the gas.

“Torino represent a difficult opponent with a great coach and talented players, but I hope to see the whole Stadio Franchi pushing us on during this difficult test.”

Fiorentina squad: Terracciano, Christensen, Martinelli, Vannucchi; Biraghi, Kayode, Parisi, Martinez Quarta, Comuzzo, Milenkovic, Mina, Ranieri, Pierozzi; Amatucci, Arthur, Bonaventura, Brekalo, Barak, Duncan, Ikoné, Infantino, Mandragora, Maxime Lopez, Sottil; Beltran, Kouame, Nzola