seydou keita scored a late equaliser to give roma the advantage in this all italian europa league last 16 tie   and saved team mate adem ljalic's blushes at the same time ljalic had the chance to cancel out josip ilicic's first half opener with a penalty on the hour mark but saw his effort saved by fiorentina goalkeeper neto the away goal for roma could be vital as the second place serie a side look to take the initiative in the return leg at the stadio olimpico next week seydou keita runs over to team mate gervinho to celebrate his equalising goal for roma against fiorentina  josip ilicic celebrates scoring the opening goal for fiorentina but it was roma who would later be laughing  fiorentina (4 3 3): neto; tomovic, rodriguez, basanta, alonso; badelj, pizarro (fernandez 46 minutes), valero (aquilani 72); joaquin, ilicic (babacar 81), salah unused subs: lezzerini, pasqual, richards, vargas goal: ilicic 17 booked: pizarro, alonso, ilicic, neto, badelj manager: vincenzo montella  roma (4 3 3): skorupski; torosidis, manolas (astori 26), yanga mbiwa, holebas; nainggolan, de rossi (pjanic 22), keita; florenzi, ljajic (gervinho 75), iturbe unused subs: cole, de sanctis, doumbia, verde goal: keita 77 penalty missed: ljajic 60 booked: nainggolan manager: rudi garcia referee: antonio mateh lahoz the hosts started stronger, and it was no surprise when mohamed salah fashioned the chance for the opening goal after 17 minutes salah has been a revelation since arriving in serie a on loan from chelsea, with six goals in seven appearances, and he continued his good run of form by playing ilicic in for the opener with fiorentina on the counter attack, salah picked up the ball on the left flank   slightly unfamiliar for him   and drove forward at pace no challenges came in and the egyptian had the simple task of slipping the ball between two defenders to the feet of ilicic, who took a touch to compose himself before smashing a left footed drive past lukasz skorupski at his near post roma came more into it as the half went on and missed good opportunities through juan manuel iturbe and alessandro florenzi but they did also lose both captain daniel de rossi and kostas manolas to injury radja nainggolan also picked up a booking meaning he will miss the second leg in the italian capital after the break the two sides edged back into their shells a little in fear of giving away more of an advantage, but the game burst back into life on the hour mark fiorentina fans hold up an impressive tifo mosaic at the artemio franchi stadium ahead of the last 16 tie  ilicic's shot flies into the net at lukasz skorupski's near post after he latched on to mohamed salah's pass  ilicic (hidden) is mobbed by his team mates after opening the scoring at the artemio franchi stadium  iturbe broke clear down the right and, one on one with neto, tried to dodge past the fiorentina keeper but was brought down the protests were fierce as the brazilian clearly got a hand to the ball but referee antonio mateh lahoz refused to waver ljalic stepped up and hit the penalty hard and low but neto dived low to his right to palm it away brazilian goalkeeper neto brought down juan manuel iturbe to give away a penalty on the hour mark  but neto swept himself down, got back between the sticks and brilliantly saved adem ljalic's penalty  but roma were not to be denied for too long just 17 minutes later keita found space to nod in florenzi's corner and grab the crucial away goal fiorentina could have restored a lead moments later but milan badelj was brilliantly stopped by skorupski but it was not enough, roma take a slender lead back to the stadio olimpico next thursday keita crashed in an equaliser with his head to give roma the first leg advantage on thursday  keita found himself in acres of space to level the scores and put roma in the driving seat of the tie  mohamed salah set up fiorentina's opening goal with a bursting run but it was not enough to secure the win 
seydou keita 13 minutes josip ilicic the 17th minute mohamed salah adem ljalic
mohamed salah set up josip ilicic to open the scoring in the 17th minute  adem ljalic had the chance to equalise but his penalty was saved  seydou keita was allowed a free header with 13 minutes left to equalise 