Farris was standing in for suspended head coach Simone Inzaghi.
He said afterwards: “We just tried to relax the lads at half-time more than fire them up. We expected Empoli to be a little more aggressive, as they put a wall up in the first half, so we were constantly trying to move the ball around, tire them out and find a way through.
“We broke the deadlock with a goal from our hitman, who is back to doing what he always does.
“We don’t have time to think about these things. Our journey since the last Serie A defeat in the derby was 12 wins and three draws, so the team scored 55 goals, we are in the running to go directly into the Champions League Round of 16 knockout stage, we got through to the next phase of the Coppa Italia.
“What we need now is to get some players back to allow us squad rotation, because we need everyone so that they can get some rest.”