Scudetto race, Stefano Pioli issues challenge to Napoli

The Parma coach spoke about the first part of his team’s season

Happy with the last-gasp victory against Fiorentina in the last match of the 2022 calendar year, but still shaken by the family bereavement that struck him, Stefano Pioli did not shy away from journalists’ microphones during the ‘Sport and Civilization’ award presented to him at Parma’s Teatro Regio on Monday.

“The team has definitely grown mentally and I think it knows how to recognize opportunities. After the bad performance in Cremona, which was our most critical passage and damaged our ranking yesterday we knew we had to show that we could finish well and with the right attitude,” Pioli began in statements collected by Milannews.it.

“We have many goals to achieve: there is the league, the Coppa Italia, the Super Cup, the Champions League…There is a motivated and stimulated group, so even those who will return from the World Cup will do so with the right mentality to do the best possible. The championship is particular and difficult, it is anomalous. Napoli’s path is too: they are doing incredible results. To make budgets now would not be correct, because there are still 23 games and there is room for all the teams. Let’s see how the players and their staffs will come out of the World Cup,” he concluded.