Fiorentina coach Vincenzo Italiano was delighted with their “spirit” after Thursday night’s Coppa Italia victory over Napoli.

Fiorentina were 2-1 ahead despite being down to 10 men, then Napoli only equalised after they had Hirving Lozano and Fabian Ruiz sent off.

Napoli collapsed in extra time, as Fiorentina struck via Lorenzo Venuti, Krzysztof Piatek and Youssef Maleh for a final 5-2 result.

“The most satisfying thing is that we rediscovered our spirit so quickly after seeming to lose it against Torino,” said Italiano.

“It was a real game in the first half, then everything happened, it was just a crazy game with red cards and anomalous situations. When it was 12 against 12, we played really well.

“The game seemed to be over, you can’t go to extra time in that situation. As for our red card, Dragowski mis-read the situation, these things can happen, he will learn from it. The second goal is the one I really can’t stomach.

“It was a match with so many massive errors, but I am happy to have secured passage to the quarter-final and eliminated Napoli.”

On Piatek’s goalscoring debut, he added: “He came on when we were trying to defend our lead with a man down and sacrificed himself to help out, then scored with his first opportunity. We needed someone to be an understudy to Vlahovic and he has a lot of experience. Jonathan Ikone also brings pace and they are excellent additions.”

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