Guingamp 1 : 2 Fiorentina - Fiorentina hold on for top spot

Ten-man Fiorentina survived a second-half onslaught to beat Guingamp 2-1 at Stade du Roudourou, thus securing top spot in Europa League Group K.

The Serie A club quickly established a two-goal lead through Marko Marin and Khouma Babacar but Claudio Beauvue's penalty rocked the visitors just before half-time.

Jose Maria Basanta was dismissed for his part in the incident leading to the spot-kick and La Viola sorely felt his absence in the second half as Guingamp went on to dominate.

Beauvue looked most likely to fire a late leveller, but the French team lacked accuracy.

While the Italians are out of sight on 13 points, Jocelyn Gourvennec's Ligue 1 side are tied for second place with PAOK Salonika before visiting the Greeks for a deciding match.

Fiorentina made the best possible start to proceedings in Brittany.

Marin had already tested Jonas Lossl with a shot from close range when, in the sixth minute, the German picked up Alberto Aquilani's pass and clipped home the opening goal.

Seven minutes later the Italians made it 2-0. Juan Manuel Vargas picked out Babacar from the left wing and the young Senegalese made no mistake from 12 yards out.

Guingamp stemmed the tide for a while and eventually carved out a couple of chances.

On the half hour Nenad Tomovic had to block Jeremy Pied's bullet header and Beauvue soon stole onto Baissama Sankoh's cross to nod the ball just over the crossbar.

The hosts halved the deficit just before the break as Beauvue capitalised on a professional foul by Basanta.

When the Argentinian brought Sylvain Marveaux down in the box he quickly saw a red card and Beauvue promptly stepped up to power the ball past Ciprian Tatarusanu from the spot.

The second half took a while to open up but, when it did, Beauvue came close to finding the equaliser with a drilling shot from close range and Moustapha Diallo headed wide.

The French side continued to pile forward and Christophe Kerbrat was next to threaten with a rasping effort off his left boot.

Unable to break out of their own half Fiorentina retreated and survived both a long-range shot from Beauvue and Diallo's attempt to head Yatabare's cross beyond Tatarusanu.

The always lively Beauvue produced the last effort of the game, but he could not find the target from well outside the area and Guingamp had to admit defeat.