Mister Vanoli’s press conference

On the eve of the 2023/24 Serie B Playoff final first leg, which will see Venezia take on Cremonese at the Stadio Zini tomorrow at 8:30 p.m., Aranioneroverde coach Paolo Vanoli analyzed the team's momentum and the opponent.

"Since the beginning of the season I had considered Cremonese as one of the main favorites for direct promotion to Serie A. In my opinion, it is the strongest squad in the league, even just reading the names on their bench in the last game you can clearly understand the depth and quality of this team. We are aware that we have deserved this final and we know that in order to prevail we will have to do a big feat. The biggest pressures I think Cremonese has all of them, I saw a strong team as I expected and a warm environment. I told my guys that we are a great group, we will have to go to Cremona and play an important game with great lucidity and tactical organization. Finals prepare themselves, each player has to find within himself the right concentration and motivation through his own rituals and habits. The important thing is to know how to be a real team, we know that we face a great opponent in its home, we have to field our qualities shown so far and clearly in finals it also takes a pinch of luck. In the return match between Cremonese and Catanzaro, we saw how the experience in important matches of certain grigiorossi players made the difference. It will be a very good 180 minutes, as against Palermo we will have to be intelligent, mature and cynical at the right time without scaring ourselves if we should encounter difficulties.

We know that they will be two very different games, we will have to be good at not lowering the pace of the match as they want us to. Maybe it is easier to face a final as a player, as a coach you have a lot of responsibility but I am passionate about my job. Surely over the course of the season some guys have played less but, given the many cautions, there can be important opportunities and we will need everyone as always. We are a team that struggles to retain and manage a result, our nature is to always be proactive and always play forward. Having an all full stadium must be a source of great pride and encouragement for the boys, it is also the result of their great work. We must never settle, I always said that from the disappointments we experienced we had to learn from them and roll up our sleeves to start again, it is the beauty of the path that has brought us this far. I asked the boys to show their full value, it's nice to have these opportunities and these responsibilities.”