Mario Gomez and Juan Manuel Vargas saw Fiorentina beat 10-man Dynamo Kiev 2-0 to reach the Europa League semi-finals.
They go into the semi-final draw with Napoli, Sevilla and Dnipro.
Mario Gomez and Juan Manuel Vargas saw Fiorentina beat 10-man Dynamo Kiev 2-0 to reach the Europa League semi-finals.
They go into the semi-final draw with Napoli, Sevilla and Dnipro.
The first leg ended 1-1 thanks to a last-gasp Khouma Babacar overhead kick, but the Senegalese striker was ruled out for the rest of the season. With Giuseppe Rossi and Federico Bernardeschi sidelined, Alberto Gilardino and Alessandro Diamanti off the UEFA list, Mario Gomez was the only real striker available. Dynamo had Evgeniy Makarenko and Miguel Veloso injured, plus Aleksandar Dragovic suspended.
Confidence was hit hard by recent setbacks, including a Coppa Italia semi-final exit to Juventus and Monday’s home defeat to Verona.
Mario Gomez just failed to tap in a Joaqin cross at the back post within two minutes, then the German had the ball in the net only after being flagged offside following a poor Olexandr Shovkovskiy parry on Borja Valero. The goalkeeper did better on Mohamed Salah’s curler.
Marco Alonso went even closer, as his strike cannoned off the underside of the crossbar and bounced back out.
It was a Fiorentina siege early on, but on 11 minutes Borja Valero’s deflected daisy-cutter shaved a coat of paint off the base of the far post.
Gomez forced a desperate one-handed save from Shovkovskiy, then from the corner his header was off target from six yards when he should’ve left it for Gonzalo Rodriguez in a better position behind him.
Dynamo Kiev remained in the game thanks to rapid counter-attacks, which saw Andriy Yarmolenko drill wide, but it was all Viola and Shovkovskiy smothered from Stefan Savic.
The game turned on 39 minutes when Jeremain Lens went down under a Gonzalo Rodriguez challenge and was booked for simulation. It was his second yellow card, leading to a harsh dismissal.
Fiorentina did eventually break the deadlock in clumsy fashion. Joaquin’s shot turned into an assist for Mario Gomez, who redirected it almost by accident off his knee back across the goalkeeper from seven yards.
It really should’ve been 2-0 straight after the restart when Salah dribbled past a defender, but instead of rolling across for Joaquin in front of an empty net, he went for goal and hit the upright from a tight angle.
Salah then went on a strange slalom, keeping the ball in the Dynamo box for a good 10-12 seconds, twisting and turning until he eventually laid it off for Borja Valero to drill wide.
Montella’s men continued to dominate without increasing their slender lead, as Joaquin turned wide from six yards, but Dynamo threatened on the counter and Norberto Neto had to pluck a Rybalka effort out of the air on a corner. Moments later Gonzalo Rodriguez intercepted an Andrei Yarmolenko cross to risk an own goal.
Just as they were panicking with another shot charged down, Juan Manuel Vargas ran up the other end and smashed his shot across the ‘keeper into the far top corner to seal it.
Fiorentina 2-0 Dynamo Kiev (3-1 agg)
Scorers: Gomez 43 (F), Vargas 94 (F)
Fiorentina: Neto; Tomovic, Gonzalo Rodriguez, Savic, Alonso; Matias Fernandez, Pizarro (Aquilani 84), Borja Valero (Badelj 79); Salah (Vargas 88), Gomez, Joaquin
Dynamo Kiev: Shovkovskiy; Danilo Silva, Vida, Khacheridi, Antunes; Buyalskiy (Sydorchuk 69), Rybalka; Yarmolenko, Belhanda (Kalitvintsev 63), Lens; Teodorczyk (Gusev 44)
Ref: Eriksson (SWE)
Sent off: Lens 39 (D)