Robbie Neilson last night admitted ten-man Hearts suffered a baptism of fire against Fiorentina but believes the defeat hasn't buried their Europa Conference League qualification hopes.
A 3-0 loss at Tynecastle to a slick Serie A side was compounded with a late red card for teenager Lewis Neilson as the Edinburgh club were outclassed throughout. First half goals from Rolando Mandragora and Christian Kouame had La Viola in cruise control before Luka Jovic fired a late third after Neilson had been dismissed for a last man foul.
The Jambos also conceded second spot on the Group A table to the impressive Italians and now sit third on three points with a trip to Florence next week now a make-or-break occasion for their Europa Conference League qualification hopes. But Neilson insists his side must bank the sobering experiences for the challenges ahead. He said: “I’m disappointed with the result. I think this is a huge learning curve, playing against a very good Fiorentina team.
“The disappointing thing for me was the goals we conceded, for all the possession they had in good areas, the goals were poor. When you play against a level of opposition like Fiorentina, that was the first time a few of the players have played at that level.
“I thought there were areas of the park where we did well and contained them. But if you stop and if you switch off for even half a second you lose goals.
“I felt we were reactive as opposed to being proactive. We need to be proactive and believe what is going to happen rather than wait for it.
“At half-time, I thought will I change it but we decided not to. They scored two goals, but we weren’t getting picked apart.”
Group A leaders İstanbul Basaksehir's surprise draw in Latvia against Rigas FS has opened up the battle for the top two places and Neilson is adamant his team are still in with a shout. He said: “We’re in a good position, sitting on three points. Obviously the result in Riga changes it a little bit, but I still expect Istanbul to pull away. Next week is going to be pivotal for us. Going away to Fiorentina is going to be extremely difficult, but if we take something from that game, it keeps it alive.
“This season is a huge learning curve for us. We have to learn to do it on Thursday night then do it again on Sunday.”
Neilson also had no complaints at the red card shown to Jambos rookie and namesake Neilson and insists the teenager will use the incident as part of his development and backed the defender to take it in his stride. He said: “I think it’s a red card, Lewis has been fantastic for us the last five or six weeks since he came into the team.
“It’s a huge learning curve, an 18-year-old kid playing against a £62million striker who played for Real Madrid. He has made a bad decision and it’s a red card.
“He’ll be disappointed but we have already spoken to him about it and we’ll move on."
Fiorentina coach Vincenzo Italiano was delighted with his side's Tynecastle display. He said: “We knew how important this game was, we were focused, we started hard and got the early goal.
“I’m very happy we played the plan we wanted to play. We spent most of the time in their half, we limited them to a few chances, I am very proud of the guys.”
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