Fiorentina coach Palladino stunned by Puskas Akademia draw: Truly baffling!

Puskas Akademia took an early 2-0 lead in the first-leg of their Europa Conference League playoff match in Florence, but Fiorentina staged a remarkable comeback to go ahead 3-2 with goals from Riccardo Sottil, Lucas Martinez Quarta, and Moise Kean. However, Puskas Akademia managed to secure a crucial 3-3 draw thanks to Wojciech Golla's late equalizer.

“It was a bad start, that goes without saying, and it was honestly inexplicable. We made errors I don’t even see in training sessions, they were big mistakes to go 2-0 down,” Palladino told Sky Italia.

“Then we did well to stay in the game, open it up with Riccardo before the break and I liked the attitude of the second half, we had a very different approach, hunger and turned it around. The regret is conceding a goal on a set play when a player was off the field injured, but we still shouldn’t have conceded it.

“There is a lot that needs improvement, we still don’t have a clear identity and are fragile. This is the situation, we need to analyse everything and recognise we need to start with the right attitude.”

The coach also said: “Obviously, we have a team that is a work in progress, many players have been arriving at different times in pre-season, so we haven’t had much time to work all together. Puskas are at a more advanced stage of their preparation this season, but it must not be an alibi, instead motivation to do better,” noted Palladino.

“I need the players and club to give us all a hand, but we knew it was going to be difficult making this many changes and it will take time.”