Goals from Mario Gomez and Mohamed Salah gave Fiorentina a 2-0 victory over Tottenham Hotspur in the second leg of their last-32 Europa League tie at the Stadio Artemio Franchi this evening.
The result sees Mauricio Pochettino's men go tumbling out of the tournament following a 3-1 aggregate defeat to the Italian outfit.
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The home side were first to threaten when Milan Badelj found space for a shot, but his effort flew wide to the right of a thankful Hugo Lloris in the Tottenham goal.
Christian Eriksen looked to get into the game and his pass kindly fell to Erik Lamela on the edge of the box, with the playmaker volleying straight at Neto who didn't have to move.
Spurs should have grabbed a vital 1-0 lead in the 28th minute as both Roberto Soldado and Nacer Chadli broke clear, only for the Spanish striker to get his attempted square pass horribly wrong and give Neto enough time to intercept.
Fiorentina moved into a strong position after the break, as Federico Fazio gave the ball up on the halfway line, allowing Gomez to break through on goal and finish neatly past Lloris.
Tottenham's hopes of reaching the next stage were nearly all but lost, only for Lloris to pull off a standout save to keep out a close-range effort from Salah, who led Fiorentina on an incisive counter-attack.
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Salah continued to torment the away side and he grabbed his team's second of the night with an adroit finish into the top-left corner from the centre of the box in the 71st minute.
Spurs thought they had clawed a goal back with the clock ticking down, only for substitute Harry Kane's effort to be ruled out for offside, leaving Fiorentina to close out the victory and seal progress into the last 16.
Christopher Dodd
