Pre-match
Paolo Vanoli had a couple of injury recoveries. Fabiano Parisi returned after a couple weeks off and got the nod at leftback over Robin Gosens, while Moise Kean made his first start in over a month after dealing with ankle issue. Marco Baroni had more of his squad available than expected, avoiding the full injury crisis that seemed to be looming. Oh yeah, and Fabio Paratici was at the Artemio Franchi for his first game as sporting director.
First half
Both sides had some early chances but Fiorentina was the
more dangerous. Kean airmailed a 1-v-1 after a nice Fagioli ball over the top and Torino naturally had some looks off set pieces. That simply has to be a goal. After the first 20 minutes or so, Torino adjusted a bit, slowing the game down. The goal came out of nothing, really. The visitors were knocking the ball around in front of a set Viola defense when Emirhan İlkhan looked up, noticed that Dodô had switched off, and played a cross to Cesare Casadei, who’d strolled right by the Brazilian to head home. VAR had a look but nah.
Fiorentina slowly upped its intensity and eventually put the Torino goal under siege. Alberto Paleari made a string of excellent saves on Marco Brescianini and Rolando Mandragora while Albert Guðmundsson and Pietro Comuzzo came close as well. It was a typical demonstration from a team that’s got the widest gap between its xG and goals scored in Serie A this year. If you’ve watched these bozos at all, you know exactly what it was.
Second half
It took all of 6 seconds for Albert Guðmundsson to suffer a serious ankle injury direct from the restart; he needed help getting off the pitch and immediately vanished up the tunnel, so he’s going to miss some time. Jack Harrison replaced him but the hosts maintained their intensity and finally got their reward. It was Rolando Mandragora who hunted down Gvidas Gineitis just outside the Torino box and fed Manor Solomon, who curled it home for his first Fiorentina goal.
It went from good (okay, acceptable) to better moments later as the front 3 connected beautifully. Solomon pinged it across to Harrison, who slid it back infield for Kean to smash home first time. To quote a friend who was also watching and texted me, “BING BONG.”
Much to my astonishment, Fiorentina didn’t immediately enter a tailspin. In fact, the players remained calm and saw out the game quite effectively, keeping the ball in the Torino half and barely letting the visitors cross midfield. Comuzzo and Pongračić were excellent, sticking tight to the Granata forwards, and the midfield circulated the ball impressively while even creating the odd shooting opportunity. Vanoli switched to a back 3 to see out the game, though, and invited too much pressure. David de Gea made a good save on Duván Zapata as Fiorentina turtled all the way back and, in the end, the inevitable happened. Comuzzo was forced to foul Zakaria Aboukhlal and Guillermo Maripán headed in the equalizer in stoppage time. Clockwork.
Full time
Goals: Solomon 51’ (ass. Mandragora), Kean 57’ (ass. Harrison); Casadei 26’ (ass. İlkhan), Maripán 90’+3 (ass. Gineitis)
Cards: Dodô 40’, Vanoli 90’+1 (lol), Comuzzo 90’+2; Lazaro 31’, Maripán 64’, Marianucci 66’, Gineitis 90’, Baroni 90’+1, Aboukhlal 90’+4
What we learned
-Fiorentina remains one of 6 Serie A teams that still hasn’t had a come-from-behind win this year, having drawn 5 and lost 8 when conceding first. I’m curious about how many of those featured late equalizers/winners like this one but for the sake of my mental health I will not be looking that up now.
-Want to see some damning statistics?
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-Vanoli deserves a ton of credit for how he set the team up. Fiorentina throttled Torino for most of this game, creating opportunities and pinning the visitors back. He has to take the blame, though, for his negativity. The Viola had defended well enough through 80 minutes and changing the shape by adding another CB invited too much pressure. Fiorentina’s been outscored 3-9 in the last 10 minutes this season, though, so it’s less about tactics and more about mentality.
-With Guðmundsson looking likely to miss some time, I’d like to see Fortini get minutes on the left wing. I don’t trust him at fullback but he could provide a Parisi-esque impact higher up.
-Full credit to Fiorentina as a whole for giving Paratici a perfect first impression of who and what it is.
What’s next
With Hellas Verona and Pisa playing to a scoreless draw yesterday, this was a great chance to pull away from the bottom two and maybe even leapfrog Lecce. Instead, the single point means that Fiorentina remains in the drop zone. Even if Lecce loses against Udinese tomorrow, they’re both on 18 points and, because the Salentini won at the Franchi in November, they lead on head-to-head, which is the first tiebreaker in Serie A. Any chance to exit the relegation places will have to wait until next week.
And guess what? Next week sees Fiorentina head north to take on Como, a side that’s already won this meeting twice this season and needs 3 points to keep up its Champions League push. It doesn’t get easier after that because Thursday is the Conference League playout at Jagiellonia Białystok. Jaga hasn’t lost a competitive match since December. So, yeah, perfect upcoming schedule for the most mentally-fragile version of this club in memory.
