Fiorentina coach can´t forget Heysel tragedy

The last time Fiorentina coach Cesare Prandelli came up against Liverpool he was as a Juventus player during the tragic Heysel stadium disaster in the old European Cup final in 1985.

Juventus won that match 1-0 but it will always be remembered for the 39 people who died in a crush when a wall collapsed following a stampede blamed on Liverpool fans.

English clubs were banned from Europe for five years and Prandelli never again came up against Liverpool as a player.

Following spells as a coach of several smaller clubs, he has finally got the chance to face the five-time European champions again but he said he wants to forget what happened last time.

“Heysel was something out of the ordinary that had nothing to do with football, nothing to do with Liverpool or with matches played,” Prandelli said.

“I don’t retain any association between Liverpool and this dramatic experience, I try to forget but you can never forget.

“I’m happy and satisfied to be here at Fiorentina and facing Liverpool, nothing more than this.”

Fiorentina are in good form in Serie A, where they sit fourth, but they lost their opening Champions League match at Lyon.

And facing them will be red-hot Spain forward Fernando Torres.

“We will have to stop him with our tactics and with a bit of luck. He’s a great player and we’ll have to be very concentrated for 90 minutes,” he said.

“We have to be organised, concentrate and play well tactically and hope that he doesn’t have a great day.”

Fiorentina will be without their top scorer and target-man Alberto Gilardino after he was sent-off in the defeat to Lyon.

But Prandelli has faith that his two deep-lying forwards Adrian Mutu and Stevan Jovetic can combine to make light of the Italy striker’s absence.

“We’ll play with Mutu and Jovetic because they are both forwards but we’ll play a different style of game. But I think we can still do well with two players like them,” said Prandelli, who will also be relying on a helping hand from the fans.

“The secret will be that we will be playing with 12 men. There are many reasons for this as it’s the Champions League and the fans will play a great part.

“We have the desire to overcome difficulties and I believe we’ll do well.”

Liverpool’s Italian full-back Andrea Dossena told an Italian journalist that Fiorentina’s usual counter-attacking style will not work against the Premier League side.

But Prandelli believes his team will still find a way to break them down.

“They’re not just a team of stars, they work very hard before matches, they’re very organised but they also have a bit of ingenuity.

“So what Dossena says is right, it’s going to be hard to score on the counter-attack, but we’ll still try.”

Fiorentina’s veteran midfielder Martin Jorgensen believes that a good result could act as a springboard to success at home.

“If we give a good account of ourselves it could give us a boost in the league over the next few months,” he said.

“Liverpool are one of the biggest clubs in Europe and they have a lot of quality. But we’re also in good form in the league.

“We’re calm, we don’t need the coach or the crowd to motivate us but we need to remove some tension because we don’t want to rush.”