Empoli, 10 maggio 2025 - Manager Cristian Chivu's words after Empoli 2-1 Parma on Serie A 2024/25 Matchday 36

“The red card affected us, then we did well to believe in ourselves and pick ourselves up. Unfortunately we conceded that great goal and we take nothing home. We have safety in our hands, we have failed in our last two games and we could have taken something to make the situation easier. Even though it may favour us, we aren't calm as the maths says that we are not safe yet and we must now wait for the others. But I don't want to do this and I want to take our destiny into our own hands, by doing better than we have done in our last two games. We always try to play our game, to produce quality on the pitch, to be competitive and having the right mentality to win. At times it works, others not. Today in the first half, it was like we were a team of kids against an adults team. We suffered physically, in duels and in confrontations. Then as ten men, we benefited from them sitting back and trying to hold onto the 1-0 lead. They were scared. Then we conceded that goal... Games are always based on duels, the problem is that we lost ours and we had few solutions. Ultimately we are always the same, it is not an alibi or an excuse, and we pay for this. We must get this young side more mature and help them to understand certain things. We should raise the level in training as if we only wait for games, sometimes we suffer physically against other sides. We weren't safe four games from the end, we were always on the ball. Unfortunately we haven't taken anything in our last two games.We have two games to go and we must keep fighting. I said the same things here to the microphones that I said in the dressing room, maybe with different tones'.