Fiorentina were simply dreadful for the first hour and trailing 2-0, but showed character to snatch a 2-2 draw with Ferencvaros thanks to Antonin Barak and Jonathan Ikone.
The Viola saw this as a must-win game after they were pegged back in the final minutes by Genk for an opening draw, while Dejan Stankovic’s Hungarians beat Cukaricki 3-1. M’Bala Nzola was not 100 per cent fit after a knock, with Yerry Mina, Dodo, Gaetano Castrovilli and Niccolò Pierozzi injured.
Pietro Terracciano was not originally in the starting XI and was called up when Oliver Christensen pulled out in the warm-up. That perhaps affected his concentration, as early on he gave the ball away cheaply, making up for it with the save on Marquinhos.
Giacomo Bonaventura blasted over from a knockdown and Lucas Martinez-Quarta couldn’t keep a header on target, but Ferencvaros thought they had to score when Kristoffer Zachariassen pulled back from the by-line for Marquinhos, denied only by a desperate Michael Kayode block from a couple of yards.
The Viola did not take the hint and were punished by a similar move, this time Ben Romdahne pulled back for Barnabas Varga to sweep home with the inside of the right boot from 10 yards. The striker managed to peel away from Martinez-Quarta to give himself space to finish after another good Zachariassen run.
Maxime Lopez saw a strike charged down, while Rolando Mandragora fired through Ibrahim Cisse’s legs without enough power to surprise the goalkeeper and the Nico Gonzalez header was too predictable.
Varga thought he had earned a penalty straight after the restart when pulling back to run into Ranieri, but VAR showed he was offside.
They did not take the hint and conceded the second moments later, as Cisse got on the end of a corner, his header in off the underside of the crossbar.
Ben Romdahne also thumped the crossbar, although he appeared to be in an offside position, and Terracciano had his gloves stung by Ramirez’s scorcher from outside the box.
Fiorentina finally woke up, but were wasteful in attack with shots off target or charged down from Nico Gonzalez and Bonaventura.
They got back into the game when Fabiano Parisi’s free kick found a glancing Antonin Barak header into the net with 25 minutes to go.
Suddenly it was all the Viola, Nico Gonzalez with a towering header off target and Barak scuffing wide on the half-volley, then an acrobatic one-handed save on the deflected Bonaventura scorcher.
Fiorentina did have the ball in the net on 79 minutes when Christian Kouame first had a tap-in parried, then pulled it back for Nico Gonzalez to score on the rebound, but a long VAR check eventually saw it disallowed for Kouame’s offside position.
Arthur Melo’s curler flashed inches wide and deep into stoppages the comeback was complete with Nico Gonzalez nodding on a cross for Jonathan Ikone to spring the offside trap and score with a cushioned volley.
They still wanted the win and an acrobatic Nico Gonzalez volley skimmed the upright with the goalkeeper stranded, then the Argentine’s header was also wide with the last kick of the game.
Fiorentina 2-2 Ferencvaros
Varga 25 (Fe), Cisse 50 (Fe), Barak 66 (Fi), Ikone 93 (Fi)
Player statistic
| 23' |  |
Dávid Sigér | ||
| 25' |  |
Barnabás Varga (Assist: Mohamed Ali Ben Romdhane) |
| 51' | |
Ibrahim Cissé (Assist: Mohammed Abu Fani) | ||
| 56' | |
Samy Mmaee | ||
| 58' | |
Barnabás Varga | ||
| Antonin Barak (Assist: Fabiano Parisi) |
|
67' | ||
| 67' | |
Mohamed Ali Ben Romdhane | ||
| 73' | |
Dénes Dibusz | ||
| Nicólas González | |
87' | ||
| Jonathan Ikoné (Assist: Nicólas González) |
|
90+4' |
Match statistic
