Oliver Glasner spoke to the media on the eve of the first leg of Crystal Palace’s UEFA Conference League quarter-final against ACF Fiorentina at Selhurst Park (Thursday, 20:00 BST).
The Palace Manager revealed there has been an "amazing atmosphere" at the Training Ground following the international break, as the Eagles prepare for their first game in 21 days.
Also on the agenda ahead of the first of two meetings with Fiorentina in the next week, was the approach of our Italian opponents and how pleased Glasner was to see some of his former players shining on the European stage.
Honestly, we've had a fantastic week. We've had great training sessions from the football perspective, but an even better atmosphere. It was really amazing to be part of this group this week.
So everybody came back from the national team, playing for their countries in a different situation. So some were really successful. Some players like Maxence Lacroix made his debut for France.
It was his big dream and well-deserved.
We then had other players who had a dream of qualifying like Brennan [Johnson], Justin Devenny, Paddy McCarthy my assistant coach... unfortunately they failed.
But when we look back at the season, that's football, it's full of ups and downs.
Now we're entering crunch time. Hopefully we have seven weeks to go. And as I told the players, 'it's not every year in your career that you're playing a European quarter-final.'
It's not every year in your career that you're playing a European quarter-final
—Oliver Glasner
We will do our best to qualify for the semi-final. And that's why we're all looking forward.
And I think this has affected the mood, the atmosphere at the Training Ground, because the players have really enjoyed it.
We enjoyed ourselves, we enjoyed the football, we enjoyed the intensity [from the last game]. We have everything we will need tomorrow to get a good result in the first leg.
I think when you see, you can have a look at the [UEFA] Europa League and you can have a look at the Conference League. Now the teams, let's say from the big five leagues, it's always England, it's always Spain, it's always Italy, because I think Bologna is still in the Europa League. It's Aston Villa from England.
We played AZ Alkmaar in the group stages, a very good team from the Netherlands. So when it comes to the final stages, it's these teams that play in these games. That's why I was not surprised to see these teams here.
It surprised me to see Fiorentina go to extra-time in the play-off round. It surprised me because they don't usually concede many goals.
[At the weekend, against Verona] I was really impressed by their organisation.
They had a tricky start to the season. But they have turned it around. In the last ten games they are eighth or ninth in the Serie A [form] league. They don't concede a lot of goals.
So we expected them to be in, at least, the quarter-final. But of course, from our perspective, we hope that this will be their last two games in the competition this year.
First of all I expect a stronger Fiorentina than at Verona, because I also watched the game on TV when they played Inter Milan and this game they could have won.
I always do this to prepare against international teams. It's usually I get clips from my analysts, but in this case I watched four or five full 90 minutes, and I expect a stronger Fiorentina team.
And also I know Marin Pongračić, because he was my player at Wolfsburg and I texted him straight afterwards and his response was, 'if you watch today's game, you don't need to be worried.' But I said, 'yes, but I watched it against Milano as well.'
I think they can do better and that's football. Sometimes you have a good game, but on the other side, it also showed for me that Fiorentina is a very efficient team.
In this game [against Verona], they waited for this one mistake and then they took advantage and won the game. And I could see the huge celebration of the entire team. The full bench was sprinting to [Nicolò] Fagioli and celebrating with him.
I watched yesterday's game against Real Madrid. It was a great game to watch and he was outstanding. I think his entire season is really incredible.
But I'm not surprised and I think he's still not at his ceiling.
He can still do better. It's great to watch these players and it's not just him. And it's not just him. I think it was Monday when Marc Guéhi had a day off so he visited the Training Ground.
I think it's a good sign that the players who left Palace are always enjoying coming back to the Training Ground and visiting the players, visiting the staff. So again, until now, it has been a really a great week here.
Crystal Palace v Fiorentina
