Fiorentina lived up to their role as favourites, advancing to the quarter-finals of the UEFA Europa Conference League after beating Sivasspor 4-1 away in the second leg. The Italians won the first leg 1-0.
In Turkey, too, Florence acted as the clearly better team, but the hosts scored the first goal through Erdogan Yesilyurt (35th).
However, the guests from Tuscany are not deterred by the deficit and, thanks to Arthur Cabral, are able to equalize shortly before the half-time whistle (44th).
After the change of sides, Florence presses on the lead, which also succeeds after more than an hour. Central defender Nikola Milenkovic turns the game around with a header (62′).
In the final quarter of an hour, Dimitrios Goutas sealed the end of Sivasspor with an own goal (78′). To make matters worse, Hakan Arslan still has to leave the field with a red card (81′).
Gaetano Castrovilli made it 4-1 a few minutes after coming on as a substitute (89′).
Poznan celebrates its greatest international success to date
Lech Posen, who met Wiener Austria in the group stage, also made it into the last eight.
After a 2-0 home win in the first leg, the Poles also won the second leg against Swedish representatives Djurgardens IF 3-0.
The Swedes weakened in the first half due to a red card from defender Marcus Danielson (44th). Posen takes advantage of this, Filip Marchwinski scores the long overdue lead (77th).
In added time, Nika Kvekveskiri (90+1) and Michal Skoras (90+2) crowned Lech Poznan’s European Cup evening with their goals. Reaching the quarter-finals means the biggest success at international level in Poznań’s club history.
Basel crowns gripping race to catch up
Things are much tighter in Slovakia. The second leg between Slovan Bratislava and FC Basel ended 2-2. The first leg also ended with the same result. So it goes into extra time, but no decision is made in it. In the penalty shoot-out, the Swiss keep their nerve and can celebrate.
Malik Abubakari (11th) and Juraj Kucka (17th) make it 2-0 early on. Shortly after the restart, Riccardo Calafiori brought the Swiss back into play with a goal (53′).
When everything looked like a win and promotion for Slovan Bratislava, it was Zeki Amdouni’s turn to score the 2-2 (90+3) at the last minute, saving FC Basel into extra time.
There are no goals in the additional 30 minutes, it goes to penalties. In the shootout, Kucka and Tigran Barseghyan failed directly on the Slovakian side, while all of the guests scored.
FC Basel wins the penalty shoot-out 4-1 and still makes it into the quarter-finals.
