In view of matchday 33 of the 2024/25 Serie A Enilive season, which will see Venezia face Empoli at the “Castellani” Stadium on Sunday at 3:00 PM, arancioneroverde head coach Eusebio Di Francesco analyzed his team’s current form and the upcoming opponent.

Eusebio Di Francesco
"The team has worked very well these past few days. We still have two training sessions left, we’re getting closer to the match and we must continue down this path.
We won the first match of this mini-tournament, a result that should give us even more strength and belief in what we’re doing. It’s important to approach the next game with a better mindset compared to the one against Monza, where perhaps we felt the weight of the game too much. Every match has its own value, and we need to be good at facing them with growing determination and courage.
Our priority right now must be to focus on ourselves first: that is the most important aspect.
We’ll be facing a team that has the same number of points in the table as we do, but that reached the Coppa Italia semifinals. D’Aversa has done an excellent job, putting in good performances even against strong teams like Napoli. Empoli is a lively team that probably has earned less than it deserved, much like us on some occasions. They’re a team with high rhythm and aggression, and we must be ready for that.
Another key element will be the context we’ll be playing in: it’s a club that’s used to fighting for survival, and it knows well the pressure and importance of these kinds of matches.
On Sunday, we need to show great unity, aggression, and the will to stay in the game at all times: we must be ready to face every situation, both positive and negative, without ever losing our grit and determination. On the pitch, we need to bring out the best version of ourselves — and that goes for everyone, not just the players.
Right now, we need to be able to focus on our strengths more than our weaknesses: this must become our leverage. We need to think about what difficulties we can create for our opponents, facing these games with the right mentality and the awareness that we’re following a clear path, working consistently. The players involved during the match may change, but our mental approach must remain the same.
Finally, pressure has to be trained: matches naturally put you to the test, and for that reason, I’ve tried to raise the level of focus during training sessions over the past few days. Our performances have improved when we’ve shown great compactness, staying in the game until the very last second, both in defense and in attack. Let’s start again from what we do best and improve the areas where we still lack."