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

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·14 March 2024

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

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.

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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.