Bologna coach Sinisa Mihajlovic was full of pride after their 3-3 draw with Lazio on Monday night secured Serie A safety.

Mihajlovic says he joined Bologna confident keeping them up.

He said, “Nobody, or at least very few, believed we could stay in Serie A and I was one of them. I saw this team had quality and characteristics. The more time went on, the more I became convinced.

“I think the change in my time here has been practically a miracle. I want to thank the squad, who are great men first and great players after.

“We had moments of difficulty, but we always stuck together, we always believed and I think we deserved to achieve safety.

“The most important thing was to get the mentality back on track, so the players understood that to play my style of football, we needed courage, to focus only on ourselves and not the opposition.

“Once the mentality has been sorted out, and we also changed fitness training to be a little more intensive, we got over the understandable injuries at the start of that change, and then really changed gear."