Bologna won 1-0 through Jens Odgaard. It was a difficult day for Viola coach Raffaele Palladino, who had lost his mother in the lead-up. Italiano's celebrations had drawn an angry response from Fiorentina chief Daniele Prade in the aftermath.
Opening comments:
"In the meantime, we join in Raffaele's (Palladino) grief, our heartfelt condolences to him and his family for the loss of his mother. Speaking of the match, in the second half we accelerated thanks to Ferguson and Odgaard, setting foot in their half more often. The second half was much better than the first, that sealed our victory. We feared Kean, their wingers and their enthusiasm, it's always very dangerous to play against them. A very important victory against a great team."
Pradè critical for the celebration. Did you cross him?
"I'll interrupt and say that it's exaggerated. In the last victories I took it and went back to the locker room, I've always done it and I don't see why he should say certain things. It's not a lack of respect towards anyone. I'm sorry, when he wants to clarify he'll call me and we'll talk about it. I won a match and I went in to celebrate: stop, I did nothing else. I'm sorry he thought of something different, for me he understood something wrong. If he wants to clarify, he has my number..."
Are you waiting for some other players to grow?
"I've seen a lot of growth in the last period, even from those who had few minutes or were not in optimal condition. We are growing and the identity is starting to emerge: defensively we are working in an important way, we focused on limiting Fiorentina and today we did it, except for one or two occasions. At the moment however they are very dangerous and having conceded so little is a credit. We have Ferguson and Dominguez who are starting to get minutes... Let's continue and not give up, the objective today was to suck points from those in front and we succeeded."
With Ferguson we saw another balance:
"We knew there could be one game in the first half and another in the second. They are healthy and ready to go, they could have put us in difficulty with their inertia, but in the second half something could have changed, I was sure of it. And Lewis helped a lot: we won the game there, I congratulated him. I thought of two or three solutions, then I chose his intelligence and leadership."
Can you see the real Bologna of Italiano?
"A little better in the defensive phase... We are focusing on that, we have to be careful. For me, when a team goes on retreat with 12 players and the others arrive between August and September, everyone has problems. We had them and now we are slowly growing in identity and in belief. With the rotations the team and the identity remain the same, we are growing above all in awareness and obtaining some good results."
How did you see Fiorentina?
"In the first half it was a great Fiorentina. There are many new players compared to the ones I had, there is little to compare and contrast. I can tell you about the current one, which has strong players and an amazing striker. They are getting results with merit: for me they will be protagonists in those areas of the league table. In the first half I was really impressed... We have to suck up points, without giving up. We have Torino and Verona before Christmas, we have to push hard."
Dominguez said he saw things a little differently from you in this week of approaching Fiorentina:
"I don't know what I showed or glimpsed, it's clear that I was playing against the recent past, against fantastic guys who gave me 3 extraordinary years, even with some disappointments that will remain in my memories. There was a bit of emotion, also because it was an important match to get us closer up front.
"Dominguez is starting, after a very difficult initial period, to smile more and be involved, to understand well what I ask of him, both on the right and on the left he applies himself in an amazing way in both phases. I'm happy for him: great assist today, between sacrifice and quality. He mustn't give up: I'm always afraid that young people after a good cross start to stand tall, lower their guard and not go fast in training. He has his head well attached, though."
Did you expect such a start from Fiorentina? Is this team stronger than yours?
"They had the merit of reacting to the first difficulties and the 8 consecutive victories are something fantastic: this means having values. However, you can't compare my path to this year's. As an opponent I can see a high-level team, I haven't trained the new ones but today I saw that they are strong. If this is Fiorentina, it can stay at the top."