UECL | Fiorentina 1-1 Maccabi Haifa: Barak books quarters | OneFootball

Antonin Barak’s header proved enough to secure a Conference League quarter-final place for Fiorentina, despite this draw with Maccabi Haifa.

The Viola scraped a last-gasp 4-3 win in the first leg in a topsy-turvy match and were still missing Christian Kouame and Oliver Christensen. Confidence was low after twice fumbling a lead to draw 2-2 with Roma at the weekend in Serie A. Manuel ‘Show’ Cafumana was sent off and therefore suspended, with Danil Lesvoi injured, Lior Kassa and Tomer Hamed ineligible. Vincenzo Italiano sat out the first touchline ban of his career.

With enhanced security measures including road closures in an early kick-off on a working day, only 6,700 tickets were sold, plus roughly 800 visiting fans.

Nico Gonzalez at full stretch tested the goalkeeper with an early toe-poke, while Antonin Barak failed to make the most of the Cristiano Biraghi pull-back from the by-line.

Rolando Mandragora blasted wide and Maccabi Haifa had the ball in the net on 40 minutes. A free kick was floated over the top for Suf Podgoreanu’s diving header, forcing a Pietro Terracciano save and Lorenco Simic turn in on the rebound, but Podgoreanu was offside at the start of the move.

Fiorentina took the lead after the restart when Marco Davide Faraoni whipped a cross in from the right for the head of Barak, who nodded it into the ground from five yards. It was his third goal of the Conference League campaign.

Riccardo Sottil fired over what should’ve been 2-0 from a tricky angle and there was celebration in Florence with the comeback of Dodo six months after his serious knee injury.

Mandragora drilled wide and Belotti was tripped right on the edge of the area, but as is typical of the Viola, they conceded an avoidable late goal.

Everyone was weak in the tackle, from Luca Ranieri to Maxime Lopez and even goalkeeper Terracciano, who let the Anan Khalaili angled drive squirm through his legs.

It made for a tense finale, but they held on to reach the Conference League quarter-finals.

Starting lineups

1

Pietro Terracciano

Goalkeeper

3

Cristiano Biraghi

Defender

82'

22

Davide Faraoni

Defender

71'

16

Luca Ranieri

Defender

28

Lucas Martínez Quarta

Defender

72

Antonin Barak

Midfielder

82'

5

Giacomo Bonaventura

Midfielder

76'

38

Rolando Mandragora

Midfielder

20

Andrea Belotti

Attacker

10

Nicólas González

Attacker

7

Riccardo Sottil

Attacker

76'

40

Sharif Kaiuf

Goalkeeper

30

Abdoulaye Seck

Defender

72'

2

Daniel Sundgren

Defender

22

Ilay Feingold

Defender

44

Lorenco Simic

Defender

27

Pierre Cornud

Defender

63'

3

Shon Goldberg

Defender

4

Ali Mohamed

Midfielder

72'

11

Lior Refaelov

Midfielder

63'

9

Frantzdy Pierrot

Attacker

63'

17

Suf Podgoreanu

Attacker

Substitutes

32

Alfred Duncan

Midfielder

6

Arthur Melo

Midfielder

18

M’Bala Nzola

Attacker

30

Tommaso Martinelli

Goalkeeper

33

Michael Kayode

Defender

19

Gino Infantino

Midfielder

37

Pietro Comuzzo

Defender

2

Dodô

Defender

71'

11

Jonathan Ikoné

Attacker

76'

8

Maxime Lopez

Midfielder

76'

65

Fabiano Parisi

Defender

82'

9

Lucas Beltrán

Attacker

82'

16

Itamar Nitzan

Goalkeeper

77

Roee Fucs

Goalkeeper

55

Rami Gershon

Defender

32

Ziv Ben Shimol

Midfielder

37

Yarin Levi

Midfielder

34

Omer David Dahan

Attacker

6

Gadi Kinda

Midfielder

63'

25

Anan Khalaili

Attacker

63'

15

Kenny Saief

Midfielder

63'

23

Maor Kandil

Defender

72'

18

Goni Naor

Midfielder

72'