Fiorentina have it all to do in Switzerland next week, as they fumbled an Arthur Cabral lead to lose 2-1 at home with FC Basel in the Conference League semi-final.
The Viola saw their run of nine consecutive Conference League wins ended by Lech Poznan, despite going through 7-4 on aggregate, and had Nikola Milenkovic suspended with Riccardo Sottil and Salvatore Sirigu injured. Arthur Cabral faced his former club, who were missing Jonas Adjetey, Sergio Lopez, Adriano Onyegbule, Fabian Frei and Kaly Sene.
Cabral’s glancing header and a Giacomo Bonaventura volley were off target in the opening minutes, while Jean-Kevin Augustin had an early goal ruled offside and Pietro Terracciano flew to palm away the Andy Diouf half-volley.
Fiorentina took the lead instead, as a Cristiano Biraghi corner was knocked down by Lucas Martinez-Quarta for Cabral to bundle over the line from six yards. He refused to celebrate against his former club.
Burger’s header into the ground from a corner bounced wide and Rolando Mandragora on the turn smashed a left-foot finish just over the bar.
Basel equalised when Diouf started the run from midfield, cut inside between a crowd of defenders and feinted the finish to the far post, instead wrong-footing everyone by scoring at the near bottom corner.
Cabral and Martinez-Quarta turned their efforts over the bar, while Zeki Amdouni’s header flashed just wide from a Taulant Xhaka corner.
It was a warning from set plays that Fiorentina did not heed, as in stoppages a free kick was floated to the back post, knocked down by Males for Amdouni to fire in from 10 yards.
Fiorentina 1-2 Basel
Cabral 25 (F), Diouf 71 (B), Amdouni 93 (B)
Player statistic
| Arthur Cabral (Assist: Lucas Martínez Quarta) |
 |
25' |
| 59' |  |
Kasim Adams | ||
| 71' | |
Andy Diouf (Assist: Taulant Xhaka) | ||
| 72' | |
Wouter Burger | ||
| 78' | |
Dan Ndoye | ||
| 90+3' | |
Zeki Amdouni (Assist: Darian Males) |
Match statistic
