UECL | Crystal Palace 3-0 Fiorentina: Viola deflated at Selhurst Park

Fiorentina have a mountain to climb after losing 3-0 away to Crystal Palace in the first leg of the Conference League quarter-final.

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The Viola were hoping to reach their fourth consecutive Conference League semi-final, but also knew the focus was on avoiding Serie A relegation. Moise Kean, Fabiano Parisi, Manor Solomon, Niccolò Fortini and Tariq Lamptey didn’t make the trip.

Jorgen Strand Larsen was suspended, with Chris Richards and Caleb Kporha injured, so Palace gave Jean-Philippe Mateta his first start since January 25 after a failed medical ruined his move to Milan.

See how it all unfolded on the Liveblog.

Mateta couldn’t keep his header on target from six yards on a Daniel Munoz cross, while Robin Gosens shinned a volley wide from a promising position.

Evann Guessand was inches away from scoring when he scuffed a volley inches wide of the far post from 12 yards.

Guessand got into the box again and had already taken the wayward shot before Dodo made contact with the clumsy sliding tackle, but the referee still awarded the penalty and VAR confirmed it.

Jean-Philippe Mateta slots the penalty past David De Gea to put Palace 1-0 up

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Mateta sent David De Gea the wrong way to give Palace the lead.

There was a second goal when Munoz sprung the offside trap on a ball over the top to knock down the ball over the top, Mateta’s tap-in was parried by De Gea, who could do nothing on the Tyrick Mitchell follow-up.

Crystal Palace have a two goal lead after just 30 minutes

Tyrick Mitchell forces it home at Selhurst Park

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The restart was delayed by several minutes when the Crystal Palace fans repeatedly threw rolls of paper at De Gea’s goal, forcing players to help stewards clean up the mess.

Fiorentina should’ve pulled one back when Dodo burst down the right and pulled back to find Giovanni Fabbian unmarked from 12 yards, but his first-time sweep only thumped the crossbar.

Former Lazio midfielder Daichi Kamada drilled just wide, while Roberto Piccoli sliding onto a Dodo assist forced a tricky save out of Dean Henderson.

Guessand went off injured and Piccoli failed to get a clean header to the Marin Pongracic cross, but it should’ve been 3-0 when Mateta steered a free header wide at the back post.

The third goal did arrive when Kamada’s cross found Ismaila Sarr for a free header at the back post, surprising Pietro Comuzzo.

Crystal Palace 3-0 Fiorentina

Mateta pen 24 (C), Mitchell 31 (C), Sarr 90 (C)