A beautiful, rounded, frank victory. Five goals that give us hope for the Conference semi-final on Thursday, but also three useful points to reach Napoli in eighth place and remain in the heart of the Europe zone: Fiorentina, who also has to recover the match against Atalanta, asphalt what remains of a very disappointing Sassuolo, compliant and ever closer to Serie B. A razor from Sottil in the first half opens the match. Then there was a big celebration in the second half with Quarta, Nico Gonzalez (twice) and Barak. In between, Thorstvedt’s 2-1 which had rekindled the flame, which was extinguished only two minutes later. Ballardini thus suffers another defeat in the worst possible way, without fighting and without the mentality of the team that must save itself: fourth from last place is now at five points and Inter is on the horizon. The road is definitely uphill.
Purple domain
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Fiorentina on the pitch with many new features and with the big players left out ahead of Thursday’s European match. Christensen in goal (he hadn’t started in the league since September) with Barak as an attacking midfielder behind Kouame. On the other side, Ballardini throws in Kumbulla and raises Doig as a midfielder, while Thorstvedt acts behind Pinamonti. We start at a slow pace, then it’s Sottil in the quarter of an hour who livens up the match with a nice swing to the left: Kouame just doesn’t get there. It’s the prelude to the goal that arrives in the 17th minute: Arthur takes the ball away from Volpato and serves Sottil who cuts in from the left and passes Consigli from the edge. Sassuolo tries to react, but doesn’t go beyond two corner kicks. So it’s Fiorentina who comes close to doubling their lead: Volpato loses another ball, Parisi flies to the left and then shoots with a sure shot: top corner. Fiorentina insists, they want the second goal to play more calmly: Ikone after a good move on the right and Barak with the right find Consigli in their path.
Sassuolo asphalted
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In the second half Nico Gonzalez comes on in place of Ikone, while Ballardini brings in Mulattieri and Bajrami for Viti and Volpato. The score does not change: Fiorentina forward and Sassuolo scraping by, in search of who knows what. The doubling comes thanks to Quarta who takes advantage of a perfect assist from Arthur. Then here’s Thorstvedt’s goal (big left foot) to give the neroverdi hope in the 56th minute. But after two minutes Nico scores the 3-1 and at that point the Viola spread. Barak and Nico Gonzalez again (in the 66th minute) bring Fiorentina to 5-1 and at that point it’s just a target shot towards Consigli. Who breathes a sigh of relief when he sees that there are no injury time…
