He said at today's Europa League media conference: "Daniele was certainly an example for young Italian midfielders, a model to follow. When I started he was one of the most important Italian and world midfielders, so he was clearly a player from whom to take inspiration.
"He's a modern coach, a young coach, he stopped playing a few years ago. It's a new school, where offensive play reigns supreme: lots of position changes, everyone must know how to do a bit of everything.
"I think we are showing on the pitch that we are performing really well. We are continuing to grow, I think it is a difficult football to learn and in a short time we have already managed to assimilate it quite well."
On facing Bayer Leverkusen in their semifinal, Cristante said: "A strong team, a team with confidence, a team that won the German championship with quite a few days to spare. They haven't lost in I don't know how many games, so it will be a very difficult match. We know it, but we also know the our strength and that we know how to win these clashes.
"It will be a match to play 100% to try to bring it home."