14 February 2022

Fiorentina leave it late to see off Spezia

14 February 2022

Sofyan Amrabat’s 89th-minute strike ended Spezia’s unbeaten Serie A run as Fiorentina left it late to win at Stadio Alberto Picco.

In the process, he got team-mate Krzysztof Piatek out of jail after he had missed a first-half penalty in a 2-1 victory.

Piatek passed up a glorious opportunity to put the visitors ahead with just 14 minutes gone when, after Arkadiusz Reca had fouled Nicolas Gonzalez inside the box, the striker saw his spot-kick come back off a post.

However, he made amends three minutes before the break when he converted Youssef Maleh’s cross from close range to make it 1-0.

Substitute Kevin Agudelo’s 74th-minute equaliser looked to have claimed a point, but Amrabat ensured his side headed back to Florence with all three.

In Spain, Unai Simon’s late own goal handed LaLiga strugglers Real Mallorca a priceless victory just as they looked to have thrown away two points.

Take Kubo’s 88th-minute attempt rebounded into the net off the Athletic Bilbao goalkeeper as the home side snatched a 3-2 win in an eventful contest.

Mallorca took a 22nd-minute lead when Salva Sevilla struck from the spot after Pablo Maffeo had been fouled by Unai Nunez and doubled their advantage within eight minutes as Angel Rodriguez ran on to Vedat Muriqi’s knock-down and fired home.

Raul Garcia might have reduced the deficit within two minutes of the restart, only to miss the target, but he made no mistake when presented with a second opportunity as the hour-mark approached.

Athletic were level with 61 minutes gone when substitute Alex Berenguer stabbed home Iker Muniain’s cross to throw the game back into the melting pot, only for Simon’s misfortune to cost them dearly at the death.

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