Adrian Mutu netted a brace in a seven-goal thriller against Debrecen leaving the Italians on the brink of qualification.
Italians stay second with win in Hungary
Adrian Mutu netted a brace in a seven-goal thriller against Debrecen, leaving the Italian side on the verge of qualification from the Group stages.
The former Chelsea frontman scored twice inside 20-minutes and came close to sealing a hat-trick before the stroke of half-time.
Six of the seven goals came in the opening 45-minutes as both sides went hell for leather from the referee's first whistle.
Alberto Gilardino and Mario Santana also found the net for the visitors who followed up a superb win over Liverpool with a solid performance against their Hungarian opponents.
Debrecen had started the game reasonably well, but Peter Czvitkovic's first-half opener on two minutes was quickly dashed by a rampant Italian attack.
Gergely Rudolf netted the second goal for the home side who applied enough pressure late on to panic their Italian opponents.
Amado Coulibaly's last gasp header brought about a nervous few minutes in stoppage time but Fiorentina held on for the win to stay second in Group E behind leaders Lyon who secured a 2-1 win at Anfield.
Goals galore
Debrecen, who had yet to score in the Champions League this season, got off to a flying start with Czvitkovics breaking their duck with just over a minute on the clock.
He took advantage of some sleepy Fiorentina defending to convert Zoltan Kiss' cross to catch Fiorentina out cold.
They soon warmed up, though, and were level four minutes later. Centre-back Dario Dainelli had stayed up following a free-kick and he found himself in the right place to retrieve a loose ball inside the penalty area which he sent back into the danger zone where Mutu hit a side-footed volley past Vukasin Poleksic from eight yards.
The Viola were gaining momentum and Gilardino put them ahead in the 10th minute.
The crossbar was still rattling after Juan Vargas' shot moments earlier when the ball came back into the Debrecen penalty area where Mutu squared the ball intelligently to Gilardino, who took his time to settle before picking his spot in the corner.
Back at the other end, Coulibaly had a chance similar to the one Mutu scored, but his sidefoot volley went wide of the far post.
Fiorentina were now on fire and they extended their lead in the 20th minute.
Gilardino did what he does best with his back to goal after winning a few fortunate rebounds and he laid the ball into the path of Mutu, who arrowed a shot in off the inside of the post from 20 yards out.
However, Debrecen hit back in the 28th minute with a fine individual goal from Rudolf, who cut in from the left and curled his shot over Sebastien Frey into the far top corner of the goal Fiorentina had to attack again and they restored their two-goal cushion in the 37th minute thanks to Santana.
Marco Donadel sent Manuel Pasqual free down the left wing and his cross was diverted towards goal by Mutu, but Poleksic made an instinctive save.
He could not hold the ball, though, and it rebounded to Santana, who sent it back into the bottom left-hand corner of the goal.
It appeared there would be even more goals in the second half when Donadel's free-kick almost slipped in as Poleksik could only save with his leg after being blinded by his wall.
The Hungarians then looked for a response as Fiorentina began packing men behind the ball to protect their lead.
Coulibaly only found the outside of the net in the 77th minute before spurning a one-on-one opportunity five minutes later as Frey stood his ground.
But Coulibaly was rewarded for his persistence with his side's third with just two minutes remaining as he raced in to send a bullet header past Frey from a right-wing free-kick.
| Debreceni |
Team Statistics |
Fiorentina |
| 3 |
Goals |
4 |
| 2 |
1st Half Goals |
4 |
| 8 |
Shots on Target |
9 |
| 5 |
Shots off Target |
5 |
| 3 |
Blocked Shots |
1 |
| 4 |
Corners |
1 |
| 17 |
Fouls |
18 |
| 6 |
Offsides |
3 |
| 2 |
Yellow Cards |
1 |
| 0 |
Red Cards |
0 |
| 70.1 |
Passing Success |
68.5 |
| 22 |
Tackles |
26 |
| 63.6 |
Tackles Success |
69.2 |
| 47.2 |
Possession |
52.8 |
| 54 |
Territorial Advantage |
46 |
|
