Bologna sports chief Marco di Vaio has sung the praises of Joshua Zirkzee.

The striker was superb for their Coppa Italia win against Inter Milan last night.

Di Vaio said: "For Bologna he is a very important player, young, he is exploding here.

"We wanted Joshua badly because we had seen his talent, we shared with (Sinisa) Mihajlovic the possibility of playing with two strikers, with him and (Marko) Arnautovic. Then the relationship with Sinisa was interrupted, the form was different, with a central point. He suffered because he expected something different from the point of view of employment, he lost a little of trust.

"The great credit goes to Joshua, because he made a mental click when Arnautovic left, he had understood the lesson, what Thiago Motta wanted from his players. He has made a leap in quality from a mental point of view, because he had already shown his technical-tactical potential in training. Now continuously with joy, participation and sense of responsibility."