UECL | Fiorentina 2-0 Viktoria Plzen: Semi-final at last

Fiorentina needed extra time to finally break down 10-man Viktoria Plzen with Nico Gonzalez and Cristiano Biraghi goals to reach the Conference League semi-final.

The first leg was goalless and the seventh consecutive Conference League clean sheet for Plzen, so it was all to play for. Jan Kopic and Sampson Dweh returned from suspension, but Rafiu Durosinmi, Matej Valenta, Erik Jirka and Jan Sykora were still injured. Jack Bonaventura, M’Bala Nzola and Gaetano Castrovilli were unavailable.

It was an aggressive start from the visitors, Robin Hranac sliding in just unable to get on the end of a free kick at the back post, but the Viola then had a massive double opportunity. First Martin Jedlicka used his legs to parry Andrea Belotti’s finish from point-blank range on a Christian Kouame pull-back, then as the move continued Kouame’s header was cleared practically off the line.

Fiorentina felt cursed after an extraordinary save on Kouame as a ball was rolled across from the right by Dodo, then Belotti’s header thumped the far post.

Just before half-time, they felt it impossible not to score with Kouame, but he smashed a powerful left-foot finish onto the underside of the crossbar at the near top corner.

In stoppages, a wonderful move including a Luca Ranieri nutmeg and Kouame back-heel flick eventually saw it rolled across to Nico Gonzalez at the back post, his tap-in deflected wide by Cadu’s desperate block.

Rolando Mandragora threatened to score a spectacular solo effort when juggling the ball to set himself up for an overhead kick that landed on the roof of the net.

Dodo was brought down just outside the box and the yellow card for Cadu was transformed to a red following the VAR On-Field Review, as he practically stamped on the back of the Brazilian’s ankle.

There was still no separating them and the tie went to extra time. Lucas Martinez Quarta came on and immediately stung the goalkeeper’s gloves with a rocket from distance, then from the resulting corner Nico Gonzalez controlled, turned and smashed into the far top corner with the outside of the right boot from 12 yards. The Argentina international was stunned to receive a yellow card for over-celebrating, especially as he didn’t remove his shirt.

Marco Davide Faraoni fired straight at the goalkeeper, but Martinez Quarta was so unlucky to hit the far post with a header on a corner.

The Viola did double their lead when Ikone countered from the edge of his own penalty area and intelligently rolled it across for Biraghi to sweep past the goalkeeper one-on-one.

Fiorentina 2-0 Viktoria Plzen (2-0 agg)

Nico Gonzalez 92 (F), Biraghi 108 (F)

Sent off: Cadu 66 (V)