Michela Catena has revealed how much she and her team-mates are looking forward to starting the new season on Saturday.

The Viola are due to host Como for their Serie A Women's Cup opener at 18:30 CEST.

“There's a nice calm atmosphere in the camp but we also feel very excited,” the midfielder began. “We've been working for a month and a half and we can't wait to get out there and start playing.

“The only difficulty we had initially was that we didn't have everyone here as lots of girls were involved in the Euros. Having people coming back in waves made things a bit trickier.

“We have lots of different nationalities here but we all get on well. Everyone's very positive.

"You can sense there's a huge desire to succeed and the new girls want to become a part of Fiorentina.

“Right from the start we said we were going to focus on one game at a time, whether it's in this new competition, the league or the Coppa Italia.

"We want to maintain our identity, concentrate on ourselves and do well.

“We've had two more friendlies and got more minutes under our belts. Now we have our first competitive match of the season so you expect maybe a bit of nerves and tension.

“We must try to get off to a strong start to give ourselves a platform to build on for the rest of the season.”