Robbie Neilson offers first-half analysis and explains striker decision after Hearts are taught Euro lesson by Fiorentina

Robbie Neilson admitted Hearts were not aggressive or brave enough to stop Fiorentina from ripping his team apart in a first half of their Europa Conference League clash in Florence.

Speaking after the 5-1 defeat, the Hearts manager felt his team didn’t get close enough and failed to match the Italians’ physicality in a first half dominated by the home team, who led 4-0 at the interval. But he was “proud” of his players’ second-half display.

Hearts took a big travelling support of around 4,000 fans to Tuscanny, but their evening quickly turned into a nightmare as Luka Jovic opened the scoring after just five minutes. It only got worse from there as Cristiano Biraghi, Nicolas Gonzalez and Antonin Barak grabbed a goal each to secure a 4-0 half-time advantage. Neilson started with a back four but changed to a five at the start of the second half, making a double substitution at half time and Stephen Humphrys pulled a goal back before the home side scored a late penalty after a foul by Alex Cochrane.

The Hearts boss told BT Sport: “I just felt first half we didn't get close enough, we weren't aggressive enough in the contact and we found ourselves 4-0 down. To the players´ credit, in the second half we were a lot more aggressive in our press in getting after them, and played much better but still not enough to take anything out of the game."

Robbie Neilson is a frustrated figure on the sidelines as Fiorentina torment his Hearts team. Picture: Gabriele Maltinti/Getty

Asked specifically what went wrong in the first half, Neilson added: "There were opportunities to make contact. You see Fiorentina are a very strong team and very physical, and we didn't match that first half. Second half, I felt we did. We came in and we got the goal, and we pushed from there. All in all though, we didn't do enough tonight to win the game. Credit to Fiorentina, they're a top team and they showed that tonight in the first half."

Neilson picked Humphrys ahead of Lawrence Shankland in attack and was rewarded with a goal, the Englishman turning in a decent performance on a difficult night.

He told BT Sport before kick-off: "We had a look at the game last week and obviously the game at the weekend, and Stephen's done very well. “We had a look at the game last week and obviously the game at the weekend, and Stephen's done very well.” he explained. “I just felt that tonight we need real blistering pace up front. We've had to balance the squad a little bit obviously with the number of injuries, and we've got a number of big games coming up in the next week or two as well.”