Nikola Kalinic's first goal in a Fiorentina shirt has given the Serie A outfit a 1-0 lead at the break in their Europa League group clash against Basel this evening.

It took La Viola just three minutes to break the deadlock at the Stadio Artemio Franchi, albeit in scrappy circumstances.

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Basel goalkeeper Tomas Vaclik failed to deal with a low cross into the box and former Blackburn Rovers striker Kalinic was on hand to bundle the ball over the line.

Vaclik was then called into action again nine minutes later, but on this occasion he was equal to Matias Fernandez's shot from distance.

As the half wore on it was the visiting Swiss side that started to dominate possession of the ball, but they were unable to convert that pressure into any goalscoring chances of note before the break.