Khouma Babacar was denied by two excellent saves, but Fiorentina were held to a 0-0 Europa League draw at PAOK Salonika.
See how the evening unfolded in our Liveblog.
Khouma Babacar was denied by two excellent saves, but Fiorentina were held to a 0-0 Europa League draw at PAOK Salonika.
See how the evening unfolded in our Liveblog.
The Viola began their Europa League campaign with a tricky trip to Salonika. These sides had already met before in the 2014-15 group phase, Fiorentina coming away with a 1-0 win in Greece before drawing 1-1 at the Stadio Franchi. Khouma Babacar was given his first start of the season along with deadline day buys Carlos Salcedo and Maxi Olivera.
Babacar thought he’d scored after 26 minutes when volleying a Maxi Olivera pull-back from the left, but Panagiotis Glykos somehow kept it out with a remarkable reaction save from point-blank range.
Maxi Olivera also set up Milan Badelj to hit the side-netting and Nikola Kalinic’s towering header was just off target.
The goalkeepers were both tested on 37 minutes, as first Ciprian Tatarusanu denied a powerful Dimitris Pelkas strike, then Borja Valero’s effort was too central to surprise Glykos.
After the restart Glykos was again decisive, getting down quickly for a one-handed save on Babacar’s daisy-cutter on the Badelj through ball.
The match seemed to peter out as time wore on with both teams misplacing passes and focusing on avoiding defeat.
PAOK had an excellent opportunity to win it at the 85th minute when Garry Rodrigues sprung the offside trap, but his finish was straight at a grateful Tatarusanu.
Kalinic also just failed to get on the end of another impressive Maxi Olivera cross.
With the last kick of the game PAOK had penalty appeals waved away, as the Rodrigues cross struck Gonzalo Rodriguez on his trailing hand, but it would’ve been extraordinarily harsh.
PAOK 0-0 Fiorentina
PAOK: Glykos; Matos, Varela, Tzavellas, Leovac; Cimirot, Canas, Pelkas (Shakov 57); Djalma Campos (Crespo 58), Athanasiadis (Thiam 79), Rodrigues
Fiorentina: Tatarusanu; Tomovic, Gonzalo Rodriguez, Astori; Salcedo (Bernardeschi 74), Badelj, Borja Valero, Ilicic (Sanchez 63), Maxi Olivera; Babacar (Tello 76), Kalinic
Ref: Vincic (SLO)