Fiorentina 3-0 Juventus: Viola plunge Old Lady into crisis
Baku, March 17, AZERTAC
Fiorentina crushed old rivals Juventus 3-0 to stay in the hunt for a top four finish, as Robin Gosens, Rolando Mandragora and Albert Gudmundsson poured more misery on Thiago Motta now in fifth place, Football Italia reported.
There had been doubts over whether the game would go ahead following flooding in the Florence area. There was a minute’s silence before kick-off for Fiorentina director Joe Barone, who died a year ago.
The hosts opened the scoring from a set play, as Robin Gosens first saw his header from the Danilo Cataldi corner charged down by Renato Veiga, then thumped it on the volley from the rebound from 10 yards.
Juventus conceded another moments later, as Kean knocked down a long ball, Fagioli picked a smart pass through the centre as Mandragora kept his cool to place the left-foot angled drive across Michele Di Gregorio into the far bottom corner.
After the restart, Weston McKennie’s volley was charged down by Luca Ranieri in the six-yard box, but Juve struggled to make themselves at all dangerous.
Instead, Fiorentina went 3-0 up when Fagioli fed Gudmundsson in midfield, the Iceland international was allowed to run forward and hit a screamer through Renato Veiga’s legs into the near bottom corner from distance.
It was almost 4-0, but Kean was offside when he robbed Renato Veiga to go clear and deposit into the empty net.
Gosens was decisive at the other end too, his acrobatic clearance preventing anyone getting on the end of a Teun Koopmeiners cross in the six-yard box, while a weak Khephren Thuram effort straight at David De Gea was the toughest test for the veteran goalkeeper.
Andrea Cambiaso limped off with another ankle injury in the final minutes, but it’s a disaster for this Juve side that conceded seven goals in two games, dropping down to fifth place.
