Fiorentina’s unbeaten streak ended after almost two months, the ‘fault’ of a Conference trip that seemed decidedly affordable but which in the end turned out to be a trap. The match on the APOEL pitch in Nicosia had all the appearance of an easy away match, the one in which one can think of making a turnover without paying too much for the consequences, and instead here comes that defeat whose flavor they had forgotten in Florence, considering that the last one between Serie A and Europe before this dates back to last September 15th, on the Atalanta pitch.
From there a draw and all victories, for a team that seemed to have changed gear and had gathered greater certainties from their second lines. On the other hand, the first two of the Conference, always under strong turnover, had brought a victory as a gift, this time the final outcome was different and much more bitter. A knockout that was to be forgotten in the first half: Palladino tried to correct on the run by gradually inserting the starters he could bring in, but to no avail.
At the end of the match Palladino is not happy, naturally, but he doesn’t leave room for bitterness alone, trying to remain rational: “We knew that today we could face a team with a very low block. They played 4-1-4-1, exploiting only the counterattacks: we prepared the match well, in the first thirty minutes we had the ball and we created situations to do badly. We were naive in granting restarts. And once down it wasn’t easy: we put them there but without finding the final spark and unhinging them. They played to dirty everything, even in an impetuous manner. In the second half they almost never played. they broke the rhythm. Let’s analyze what we did well and with great balance we immediately think about the championship.”