Pre-match
Both managers had deal with the absence of a star striker: Chancy Mbuyi for the hosts and Moise Kean for the visitors. Stefano Pioli rotated quite a bit, bringing in Pietro Comuzzo, Mattia Viti, Niccolò
Fortini, Fabiano Parisi, Cher Ndour, Edin Džeko, and Roberto Piccoli. Tommaso Martinelli, however, apparently isn’t the cup goalkeeper anymore as David de Gea kept his place between the sticks on a wet night in Vienna.
First half
Fiorentina was a little nervous to start the game, misplacing passes and standing off Rapid Wien too much, but grew into the game. Niklas Hedl spilled a high cross, giving first Viti and then Piccoli a chance to turn home in the midst of a crowd, but Ange Ahoussou cleared both efforts off the line. Hedl was to blame for the eventual opener as well, punching Džeko’s angled shot straight onto the foot of an onrushing Ndour, who scored his second goal of the tournament completely unintentionally.
The impressive Nikolaus Wurmbrand, who gave Parisi a torrid time throughout, cracked a fairly tame effort on frame before Nicolò Fagioli hoisted a long ball over the top for Piccoli, who was all alone in front of goal and somehow missed the entire target. An errant Pablo Marí backpass gave Ercan Kara a decent look at the top of the D but he snatched at it, dragging it wide. When referee Yigal Frid ended the half, the visitors had clearly been superior but not so much that anything was settled.
Second half
Things got out to a flying start as Ndour and Fortini combined well down the right, freeing up the latter to put in a low cross that found Džeko. From there, the big Bosnian knew exactly what to do: sidefoot it home like has thousands of times in his life. Just like that, Fiorentina’s lead had doubled and it felt like maybe everything would be okay. At least in this game.
That pretty well closed the door on things. Rapid Wien pushed and shoved (and superbly-named referee Yigal Frid) let them get away with it) but the hosts never looked like scoring, much less mounting a comeback. Fiorentina’s unexpected fluidity did fall away when Fagioli departed, likely to save his legs for Bologna on Sunday, but the Viola were perfectly happy to grind out the remaining half hour. Indeed, Eddy Kouadio got his first senior goal involvement within seconds of coming on, teeing up fellow substitute Albert Guðmundsson to rifle home a late finish that put the cherry on top. Fun times.
Full time
Goals: Ndour 9’, Džeko 48’ (ass. Fortini), Guðmundsson 88’ (ass. Kouadio)
Cards: Kara 35’, Seidl 61’; Comuzzo 30’
What’s next
It was another overmatched Conference League opponent but Fiorentina actually showed some signs of life here. The midfield displayed a pulse and the forwards were active. This team isn’t fixed by any stretch of the imagination but maybe, just maybe, we’ve seen these guys finally start to get off the ground, or at least provide us enough evidence to be horrified on Sunday’s Derby dell’Appeninno when the Viola, still winless in Serie A, remain that way. For now, though, let’s enjoy a win. We might not get many more this year.
