This is not how the Fiorentina coach would have imagined his European debut. Raphael Palladino. 3-3 the final score with Puskas Akademia in the first leg of the Conference League Playoffs. A Fiorentina too ugly to be true, who after 12 minutes are already two goals down: Kayode makes all the mistakes, the worst of the Viola with 4 in the report card (same vote for Ikone, his entrance on the field was disastrous).
Palladino takes cover and sends Dodo and Kean onto the field at the start of the second half: the Viola team, who had closed the gap with Sottil before the break, finds the equaliser with captain Martinez Quarta and completes the comeback with the former Juventus striker, who scores his first official goal for Fiorentina and ends a drought that has lasted more than a year. It seems done, but Fiorentina’s defence makes another mistake on set pieces and Puskas Akademia finds the equaliser in the final minutes. The next match is in Hungary in a week, Fiorentina will have to win to advance to the group stage.
Palladino asks for reinforcements after the match
At the end of the match, Viola coach Raffaele Palladino, in addition to commenting on the match against the Hungarians, loudly calls for reinforcements on the market: “We have a team under construction, many players have arrived one by one. Quarta arrived fifteen days ago, Amrabat later, Colpani too. Many players have arrived recently, we are facing teams that are much further ahead than us but it must not be an excuse. I ask the boys to put in something more, the club to give me a hand but this is a fact. We need to find the team identity that we don’t have at the moment. Changing many players, changing game systems we know it will take a bit of time. We need the right characteristics for my idea of football, the club knows where to intervene and what to take. There is great harmony with the club, we need some additions in some positions on the pitch where we are a bit lacking and I would like to see the solidity of my team. We are a bit of a middle ground, but middle ground is useless. It was a team assembled in a few days, now we have players returning from the national teams. It’s also normal, we can’t expect a very clear team identity. I’m sure that with the help of the club and the boys we will soon do better. What have I asked the club? Reinforcements in defense, in the middle of the field and on the wings, something is missing but the club is working. We will arrive at August 30 with a complete squad”.