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Adrian Mutu and Danny Koevermans were on target as Fiorentina were held to a dangerous 1-1 home draw by PSV Eindhoven in the UEFA Cup quarters.
The Viola pulled out all the stops with a very attack-minded formation for this quarter-final first leg after eliminating Everton on a penalty shoot-out. PSV had seen off Tottenham in the last round and also adopted a 4-3-3 system.
In the opening minute Heurelho Gomes saved Adrian Mutu's header from a Massimo Gobbi cross, but moments later Sebastien Frey required a much tougher save to deny a Danny Koevermans header.
Zdravko Kuzmanovic unleashed a fierce strike from 20 metres to test Gomes, but Adrian Mutu horribly wasted a Fabio Liverani counter with a poor touch.
PSV kept possession well and tried to control the tempo, though the home side continued to have the best chances with Giampaolo Pazzini and Kuzmanovic.
Gomes had his palms stung by a Tomas Ujfalusi strike after Pazzini's smart dummy on the edge of the box.
Pazzini really should have opened the scoring on 33 minutes, but his header from six yards just didn't have enough contact on it from Gobbi's cross and the ball whistled across the face of goal.
At the other end Koevermans held up the cross for Culina to blast well over from just inside the box. It was mostly Fiorentina though as Rajkovic charged down a Pazzini effort inside the area and from the resulting set piece Mario Alberto Santana was anticipated in a dangerous position.
In first half stoppages Frey almost gifted PSV an opener with some unnecessary fancy footwork as a striker came sliding in, but Fiorentina were rescued by a foul on Gobbi.
Straight after the restart Santana chipped a cross to the back post where Mutu was acrobatically stopped from latching on to it. However, the resulting corner was turned into an Afellay counter, bringing a fantastic one-handed save out of Frey at the near post.
There was another wonderful PSV opportunity as Farfan got away down the right and flashed in a cross, but Alessandro Gamberini did just enough to put off Koevermans.
The second half was end to end stuff with both teams pouring forward at pace. Just as the Viola were under the most pressure, Mutu gave them the lead. Pazzini did well to flick on the goal kick and Mutu burst between two defenders and bravely made the most of a lucky ricochet off Gomes' clearance to bundle the ball over the line.
There was another blow for PSV, as moments later Gomes seemed to pull a calf muscle during a clearance and had to be stretchered off, replaced by Roorda.
It did not shake their confidence, though, as Koevermans drew the Dutch team level. He spung the offside trap on Afellay's pass to sprint past Gamberini and smack an unstoppable left-foot screamer under the bar.
Marco Donadel came off the bench for the disappointing Kuzmanovic, then Liverani nutmegged a defender to send Riccardo Montolivo clear, but he hesitated and couldn't finish off the chance.
Christian Vieri replaced Liverani for the final 15-minute push and substitute goalkeeper Roorda almost let a Montolivo cracker through, but was fortunate as it ricocheted back into his hands.
Santana rolled across for Mutu's first time swinger, palmed round the post by Roorda. It was now a siege as Gamberini nodded on a long ball for Vieri and Kromkamp performed a crucial intervention as he was lining up the shot.
From the resulting corner, the goalkeeper smothered a Mutu header. Pazzini nodded a Gobbi cross over the bar.
There was some good news for Fiorentina, as in stoppages Farfan tripped Montolivo and was booked, ruling him out of next Thursday's second leg in Eindhoven.
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