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Viola rue Coppa exit Thursday 31 January, 2008

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There’s disappointment in the Fiorentina camp after yesterday’s defeat against Lazio ended the Viola’s Coppa Italia adventure.

The Tuscans may be locked in the battle for Champions League qualification and still involved in the UEFA Cup, but Coach Cesare Prandelli has always stressed his desire to lift the Coppa Italia.

However, despite leading through Franco Semioli, Fiorentina fell to a second 2-1 reverse against Lazio at the Stadio Artemio Franchi to exit the competition 4-2 on aggregate.

““It’s a shame that we were discouraged after their equaliser because we started very well,” Prandelli lamented.

“We came up against a very tight Lazio side and they gave us problems physically, but really we just lost our self-belief.

“Before we went ahead, we had three clear chances and should have taken more confidence from that.”

Goal scorer Semioli was also dejected, but is keen to move the focus to the weekend’s crunch match against Milan.

“I am happy to have scored, but the result was such a shame,” the former Chievo man said.

“We had an excellent first half with good chances, but unfortunately we wasted too many and it was tough to chase the game as that left us unbalanced.

“We feel bitter as we really wanted to get through, but from tomorrow we have to be concentrating on the game against Milan on Sunday.”

channel4.com - Football Italia