Fiorentina 2-1 Crystal Palace (2-4 agg): Palace survive scare in Florence to advance into semi-final | OneFootball

Crystal Palace progressed into the Conference League semi-final, winning 4-2 on aggregate to reach their first ever European semi-final.

Ismaïla Sarr and Daniel Muñoz caused Fiorentina real problems in the early exchanges, with the pair combining to give Crystal Palace an early lead on the night, and a four-goal aggregate advantage.

Fiorentina weren’t giving up and levelled the score on the night from the penalty spot through Albert Guðmundsson, after Jaydee Canvot was adjudged to have fouled Rolando Mandragora in the box.

The hosts kept fighting and grabbed an early second-half goal through Cher Ndour as they pushed to pull off a historic European comeback.

As it happened

The first chance of the game fell to Palace as they looked to kill off the tie. Ismaïla Sarr drove forward with the ball before playing in Daniel Muñoz who found himself wide open on the right-hand side of the box, but he fired wide when he really should have tested David De Gea.

But after 16 minutes, they did get the goal to all but seal a semi-final spot for Crystal Palace. The visitors broke at incredible speed, with Sarr again finding Muñoz on the right, but this time the end product was there from the Colombian wing-back, and he picked out the head of the Senegalese forward, who powered a header past De Gea.

Fiorentina did pose more of a threat than in the first leg, and Manor Solomon tested Dean Henderson with an effort from outside the box, which the English goalkeeper had to tip round the post.

A few minutes later, the Fiorentina pressure did pay off as they were awarded a penalty after Jaydee Canvot kicked through the leg of Rolando Mandragora and the referee pointed to the spot. Albert Guðmundsson stepped up and sent Henderson the wrong way to reduce the aggregate deficit to three for the Italians.

The hosts’ momentum continued into the second half as they grabbed a second goal after 53 minutes. Cher Ndour picked the ball up at the edge of the box and drilled a low strike past Henderson into the bottom corner to take the lead on the night, and bring the aggregate score to 4-2.

Palace rode out the Fiorentina pressure, limiting the hosts’ to very few, if any, clear cut chances, and ultimately winning comfortably on aggregate, despite a 2-1 defeat on the night.

A job well done for Crystal Palace who advance into the semi-final of the Europa Conference League where they will take on Shakhtar Donetsk. Having conceded the second, it would have been easy to succumb to the crowd and the occasion, but they stood strong and rode out the game fairly comfortably in the end.

The only dampener for their evening will be the injuries to Adam Wharton and Maxence Lacroix who both had to be substituted in the first half. Oliver Glasner will be desperate they are not serious injuries as they look to add the Conference League trophy to their collection of silverware under the Austrian. The London side host West Ham United on Monday night.

Fiorentina huffed and puffed but just didn’t do enough to complete what would have been a remarkable comeback. All efforts for the team from Florence will be on improving their league position as they sit nine places below their sixth place finish from last season. They travel to 18th-placed Lecce on Monday night.