Genoa coach Davide Nicola is proud to have guided his players to safety.

Nicola oversaw eight wins, four draws and nine defeats, amassing 28 points in 21 rounds.

“We frankly deserved to secure our safety a little earlier," Nicola told DAZN after their final 3-0 win over Hellas Verona.

“What interests me is the team and since I arrived, we have put together enough points to be ninth in the table. It would've been a failure not to achieve our target, because in our business, it's all about results.

“It has been like saving ourselves twice. As in the first half of my season, we made up the gap and caught Lecce in the table. In the second half, we overtook them and had to stay there.

“The paradox is that if we hadn't won tonight, it might all have been for nothing. We won the head-to-head matches, including above all with Lecce in the crucial moment of the season. We had enough points to be ninth during this period and that's something to be proud of."

Nicola wore a t-shirt at his media conference which showed a snap of him as a player holding his baby towards Genoa's ultras.

He added: “Many years ago, the Genoa fans gave me so much joy. When I came back here as a coach, they gave me a photograph that I didn't even remember taking, so I had to pay back that debt to them.

“The only pain today is that our fans weren't with there with us to celebrate."