Live TMW
8.30pm – Fabio Cannavaro in a few minutes he will speak to the microphones in the press room of the Via del Mare stadium.
9.15pm – The conference begins.
How do you prepare for finals like these?
“These are games where you have to try to stay calm, you have to leave fear out, you go into play with the awareness of having important weapons, players who are finding confidence and condition. The most difficult thing since I arrived has been the condition, many players have returned from long-term injuries. They are all making an incredible effort and we can’t give up now. Since I arrived this team has had moments of fear, difficult moments, sometimes we make mistakes that we don’t understand. Since I arrived I’ve been trying to make people understand that we need to think. Today we won a battle, the next one is even more difficult, we will face a team and a coach who have played many games like this. Playing at home shouldn’t fool us. Then there’s the last one at home in Frosinone, since I arrived there have only been intense moments.”
It’s an important victory.
“The fact of playing later can be an advantage for many, given how yesterday the pressure increased on us. At the start of the match I saw the boys tense. We encountered some difficulties, Lecce started strong, they have players who were calm. We suffered and then we came out. But games are like that. In the end, motivations made the difference. When we started playing, situations that we had rehearsed came up. Even whoever took over played their part, the boys care.”
Was it an advantage to play against Lecce safe?
“We found a Lecce team that fought for it despite having celebrated, they didn’t want to lose at home. Coming back to Lecce is always nice, beyond the city and the good food here the stadium is always full, it’s nice even as an opponent.”
9.25pm – Cannavaro’s conference ends.
