"I’m disappointed because I didn’t expect us to perform as we did.” Rudi Garcia gave his thoughts after Fiorentina overcame his side 3-1 at the Maradona.
“It’s a bad result and the product of carelessness. We shouldn’t have conceded the first goal because we’d worked on defending their crosses. Once we got the equaliser we should’ve found the spark to drive us forward.
“Unfortunately we made mistakes in defence, but also in attack. We had goalscoring chances which, had they been converted, would’ve turned the match around.
“We were lacking clarity and aggression. We didn’t manage to penetrate them when presented with opportunities to do so.
“After [Andre-Frank] Anguissa got injured we had to change our gameplan but we didn’t make the most of the opportunities which came our way.
“I take responsibility for the defeat, but not for any accusations of poor substitution choices. I was looking for drive and freshness with [Giacomo] Raspadori and we nearly got a goal through him. I then put on Cholito [Simeone] in place of [Victor] Osimhen. I didn’t want to play them together because that would’ve led to a shortage of players in midfield.
“We need to analyse this match in the cold light of day and dust ourselves down. I was after three wins on the bounce. We didn’t manage this and we’re still away from where we want to be.
“Right now we’re not in the Champions League place and our first aim is to get back in the top four. We’ll be back in action against Hellas Verona, keen to get back to winning ways. Then we’ll try and string a run of positive results together. If we work well then in time results will come.”
