Bernardeschi must go to Euro 2016

It was perhaps only right that on Roberto Baggio's birthday, Fiorentina's No. 10 would have the final say in Thursday's Europa League round-of-32 meeting with Tottenham. Certainly, the significance of the shirt has never been lost on Federico Bernardeschi."That jersey means so much at Fiorentina," the attacker acknowledged recently. "It’s a symbol." Just like Bernardeschi, who has become the symbol of Paulo Sousa's Viola side, the personification of their technique and tenacity. They needed both against Tottenham.TheGazzetta dello Sporthad described Mauricio Pocchettino's men as "horrible opponents" for a Fiorentina team that had appeared tohave been suffering from fatigue in recent weeks, pointing out that"Tottenham are the team with he lowest average age (24.6 years old) but the highest tempo of play in the Premier League." The Viola certainly struggled to get to grips with Spurs during the first half at the Stadio Artemio Franchi.Fiorentina boasts a passionate following - over 10,000 fans turned out for the first team's first training session of the New Year - yet the crowd was strangely subdued duringthe opening 45 minutes, the home fans perhaps stunned into silence not by the fact that their team was trailing but that it was being out-passed. Fiorentina, after all, is a side that has averaged 58 percent possession in Serie A this season - but it was struggling to keep a hold of the ball against an impressively composed Spurs squad.Indeed, the visitors' halftime lead, which came courtesy a coolly converted penalty from Nacer Chadli, was wholly deserved. True, Dele Alli was lucky to have stayed on the field after clearly sticking the boot into a prone Nenad Tomovic, but the England midfielder had, for the most part, typified the English outfit's confidence during a dominant first half.The fear among the Fiorentina faithful at that point was that things were only going to get worse in the second half for Paulo Sousa's side and Spurs certainly looked the more likely scores immediately after the break, with Chadli wasting a good chance to double the visitors' advantage after being played in by Christian Eriksen.However, Fiorentina then began to play with the kind of intensity with which it has become synonymous this season. Fiorentina began to press higher up the field and looked a completely different side. Bernardeschi embodied their improvement. As Sousa noted afterwards, "He didn't have a great first half; his first touch wasn't spot on. But he continued to work hard, and he created space for himself. Like the rest of the squad, he grew during the game and proved to be decisive."Indeed, it was Bernardeschi who drew a rapidly improving side level with a deflected strike from distance.The goal changed the entire atmosphere. "Until we conceded the goal, we played much better [than them], but after the goal, we didn't manage the game well and we had a lot of problems in the final 25 minutes."