Fiorentina have beaten Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk to confirm top spot in Group E of the Europa League.
The Italian side had the first chance of the evening when Manuel Pasqual's cross found Massimo Ambrosini, but his header went over the bar.
Dnipro responded to that with Artem Fedetskiy blazing over from inside the box, but the Ukrainian side soon had the lead. Yevhen Konoplyanka ran with the ball on the left, exchanged passes with Ruslan Rotan, and then bent a shot into the bottom corner.
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After the goal, Dnipro seemed content to play on the counter, allowing the home side the majority of possession.
Juan Guillermo Cuadrado then latched onto a cross at the back post, but his low drive was kept out by the goalkeeper.
Neto was called into action to save Sergiy Politylo's effort, and Fiorentina took full advantage, equalising through Joaquin's back-post header.
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The first chance of the second half was for the visitors, but Konoplyanka's free kick was saved by Neto.
However, it was Fiorentina who had control of possession and then went close to taking the lead when Matias Fernandez tested the goalkeeper from distance after he had worked the space.
Even though they had large periods with the ball, the hosts failed to test the Dnipro defence on a regular basis.
However, when they did they made it count. Cuadrado collected the ball just outside the box and drove a shot beyond the reach of the goalkeeper to secure the win and top spot in the group.
Gary Peters
