Round victory for Fiorentina, who beat Roma 5-1 to the Franks.
First half all purple – At the Franchi we started at a good pace straight away, with Dybala already attempting the magician’s shot from mid-field early on, but finding De Gea ready. Fiorentina finds the good initiative, and the opening goal, in the 9th minute: rapid and lethal restart, orchestrated by Kean: served by Bove, the recovered center forward exchanges with Beltran and leaves Svilar stunned with a dirty left-footed shot that is worth the 1-0. In the 17th minute there was also the Viola’s second goal, favored by the generosity of the former Bove, who attacked Celik under high pressure and forced him into a penalty foul. Beltran appears on the spot: the Argentine opens his right foot, wrong-footing Svilar for 2-0. Roma felt the backlash and almost suffered a hat trick: another nice vertical Viola action, but Cataldi – triggered by Colpani – and his right foot saw the path blocked by Svilar. After half an hour of difficulty, Juric goes the hard way and rejects both Angelino and Cristante, inserting Zalewski and Kone in their place. The move paid off almost immediately, as the French midfielder found a great goal from distance in the 39th minute to bring the score to 2-1. Just for a couple of minutes, because Viola are unleashed and find space on the restart: in the 41st minute Bove breaks through and serves a pass for Kean’s brace and the 3-1. With this result a lively and purple-tinged first half ends.
Rome dissolves – Another strong impact move by Juric when the games resumed: Roma started the second half with an extra attacker, Baldanzi, instead of a defender like Mancini. The tune, however, doesn’t change much and, indeed, poker also arrives at the beginning of the second half. The great former Bove drops it, at the end of a serpentine action in which he is also helped by a couple of rebounds to open the way towards the 4-1. When things seem like they couldn’t get any worse for Roma, here they go instead. In the 65th minute the Giallorossi, three goals down, also had to accept the news that they would have to finish the match in numerical inferiority: already booked, Hermoso knocked out Dodo at the gates of the penalty area and earned an early shower. The bad news seems to never end for Roma this evening and in the 71st minute the gap becomes even heavier: Hummels doesn’t celebrate his long-awaited debut in the Giallorossi at his best, heading home the own goal to make it 5-1. If there wasn’t already a match, the episode ends it completely and the finale is a slow wait for the final whistle. Which marks a round victory for a Fiorentina that dreams big. Roma, however, dissolved.
Relive Fiorentina – Roma with TMW