Fiorentina rode their luck, Pietro Terracciano saving a penalty and making a series of saves, until Lucas Beltran gave them victory over Verona with his first Serie A goal.
The Viola secured top spot in the Conference League and direct access to the last 16, but also lost Nico Gonzalez until 2024 with a serious injury. Alfred Duncan also missed out with Dodo and Gaetano Castrovilli. Hellas had Ondrej Duda suspended and Marco Davide Faraoni injured.
It was a shock start, as in the opening minute Michael Folorunsho pressed Pietro Terracciano and got to the ball before the goalkeeper, leading to a penalty. However, Terracciano made up for the howler by saving the Milan Djuric penalty and the Cyril Ngonge follow-up.
The hosts were all over the place, as Ngonge then saw his attempt fingertipped onto the outside of the upright on a Darko Lazovic knockdown.
M’Bala Nzola made a rare start along with fellow centre-forward Lucas Beltran and had the ball in the net after 18 minutes, but it was disallowed because he handled before the half-volley.
Terracciano denied Djuric again with a save from point-blank range on the header, and showed alert reflexes on Ngonge from a Folorunsho pull-back.
The experiment of using two centre-forwards was a failure and Vincenzo Italiano made three substitutions at half-time.
Jonathan Ikone immediately came on and fired just over after cutting inside from the right, while Terracciano was right behind the Tomas Suslov daisy-cutter.
Terracciano continued his run of saves by slapping a looping Isak Hien header out from under the crossbar on a corner.
Rolando Mandragora almost scored an extraordinary acrobatic goal with a scorpion flick, reaching out behind him to meet the cross, but Lorenzo Montipò made a great reaction save.
Fiorentina finally broke the deadlock with Beltran’s first Serie A goal. Bruno Amione made a chaotic attempt to clear the Ikone flick into the box, instead knocking it down and the Argentine reacted quicker than anyone else by blasting into the net from 12 yards.
Fiorentina 1-0 Verona
Beltran 78 (F)
Saved penalty: Djuric 3 (V)
Player statistic
| Pietro Terracciano |  |
2' | ||
| 3' |  |
Milan Djuric | ||
| Cristiano Biraghi | |
36' |
| Antonin Barak | |
65' | ||
| 67' | |
Pawel Dawidowicz | ||
| Lucas Beltrán |  |
79' |
Match statistic
