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

Originally posted on Football Italia | By Susy Campanale | Last updated 3/14/24

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.

See how it unfolded on the Liveblog.

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.

Fiorentina 1-1 Maccabi Haifa (5-4)

Barak 59 (F), Khalaili 88 (M)

14-03-2024 17:45 1/8 Final Artemio Franchi Stadium

Fiorentina

Maccabi Haifa 1 - 1

Player statistic

1st half

16'

Pierre Cornud

2nd half

Antonin Barak (Assist: Davide Faraoni)	59'
	79'	Lorenco Simic
	88'

Anan Khalaili (Assist: Shon Goldberg) Andrea Belotti

90+6'

Match statistic

57 Possession % 43 17 Total shots 3 4 Shots on target 2 10 Shots off target 1 3 Blocked shots 0 7 Corners 0 1 Offsides 2 9 Fouls 16 Fiorentina Maccabi Haifa

Starting lineups

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

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'

This article first appeared on Football Italia and was syndicated with permission.

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