Fiorentina made a heroic comeback from two early Puskas Akademia goals including Moise Kean’s first strike in over a year, but at 3-3 the Conference League play-off will go down to the wire.
The second leg will be in Hungary next Thursday to decide who enters the tournament proper. David De Gea made his first competitive appearance in 446 days, but Nico Gonzalez was left out along with new signings Albert Gudmundsson and Amir Richardson.
It was a bad start for Fiorentina, because Michael Kayode clumsily went late into a clearance and clattered into Zsolt Nagy for a penalty after Alessandro Bianco’s initial error. A rusty De Gea immediately had to face the spot-kick and almost got his fingertips to it, as Nagy drilled low into the near bottom corner.
Things got even worse, as Kayode gave the ball away in midfield and Mikael Soisalo placed the angled drive past De Gea down the right flank.
Soisalo almost got a third when De Gea got his sweeper-keeper movement all wrong and was relieved to see the lob go over the empty net.
Bianco nearly made up for his earlier error with a ferocious strike off the outside of the right boot that swerved viciously to smash against the crossbar on 42 minutes.
In first half stoppages, Riccardo Sottil got Fiorentina back into the game, gathering inside the box from Bianco and shifting onto his right foot to curl into the far bottom corner.
After the restart, Lucas Martinez Quarta scuffed a half-volley over from 12 yards on a loose ball, then substitute Moise Kean was denied at the near post by a desperate save, Dodo firing just wide on the resulting corner.
Jonathan Ikone got away down the right only to get greedy and go for goal rather than lay it off for Kean, then Kean did see a potential tap-in deflected over the bar.
Ikone should’ve done far better when springing the offside trap to go clear, but again he went for goal instead of passing to Kean and it flashed across the face of an empty net.
They eventually completed the comeback with a Martinez Quarta header on a corner taken by Rolando Mandragora.
Parisi had penalty appeals rejected for a nudge, but Kean did turn the game around completely with a precise angled drive with the right foot down the right flank after Puskas were caught out by the high press. The former Juventus striker had not scored a single goal since April 2023.
Fiorentina almost threw it all away with an error playing out from the back, but De Gea made an astonishing acrobatic save on the Urho Nissila free header from six yards.
They were down to 10 men with Martinez Quarta off the field for cramp when Puskas Akademia were allowed a Wojciech Golla free header to make it 3-3 late on, as Christian Kouame lost his marking.
There was drama with the last kick of the game, as Kean was denied from point-blank range by the goalkeeper and did not appear to be offside.
Fiorentina 3-3 Puskas
Zs. Nagy pen 9 (P), Soisalo 12 (P), Sottil 45 (F), Martinez Quarta 67 (F), Kean 75 (F), Golla 89 (P)
Fiorentina: De Gea; Martinez Quarta, Pongracic, Ranieri; Kayode (Dodo 46), Bianco (Amrabat 66), Mandragora, Parisi; Colpani (Ikone 56), Beltran (Kean 46), Sottil (Kouame 77)
Puskas Akademia: Pecsi; Maceiras, Golla, Stronati, Ormonde-Otterwell (Komaromi 46); Nissila, Favorov (Colley 82), Plsek; Soisalo (Levi 74), Puljic (Szolnoki 82), Zs. Nagy
Ref: Delajod (FRA)
It’ll be a disaster for Serie A’s coefficient if the get knocked out next week.
What a crap, Viola…