Cristiano Biraghi has warned his Fiorentina teammates they will have to be perfect in order to beat his former club Inter tomorrow.
Antonio Conte’s side travel to the Stadio Artemio Franchi for what will be the third meeting between the teams this season.
Inter have won both of the previous meetings, once in the league and once in the Coppa Italia last month, and Biraghi – who spent last season on loan with the Nerazzurri – is under no illusions of how tough it will be tomorrow.
“We need to have the perfect match,” the Italy international insisted in an interview with Gazzetta dello Sport.
“We will have to be careful when defending and hurt them when the chances come along.”
Biraghi was then asked which of Inter’s players will pose him and his teammates the greatest danger.
“It would be easy to say Romelu Lukaku or Lautaro Martinez, but Achraf Hakimi is formidable too and so are Nicolo Barella, Marcelo Brozovic and Arturo Vidal.
“They are an orchestra with crazy individual players.”
The 28-year-old, who has one goal and five assists in 22 appearances this season, then went on to sing the praises of Antonio Conte.
“He’s like a sergeant, he works incredibly hard and wants the team to absorb his ideas as much as possible.
“He’s a perfectionist, he leaves nothing to chance.
“His career speaks for itself.”
Asked about his former club’s chances of winning the Serie A title this season for the first time since the 2009-10 season, Biraghi responded: “It is really complicated to answer this.
“On paper, Inter are the strongest team alongside Juventus, but AC Milan can go all the way, Roma and Napoli are also there and Lazio and Atalanta can surprise too.”
Inter are two points behind AC Milan in the standings heading into tomorrow’s match, with the second Derby della Madonnina of the league season little more than two weeks away.