Gomez and Rossi score hat-tricks - as viola fans are left wondering what could have been

Once both on the books in Florence, Mario Gomez and Giuseppe Rossi displayed their quality as they scored hat-tricks Wolfsburg and Celta Vigo respectively.

In an remarkable game, where Wolfsburg were two-nil down to Bayer Leverkusen, Gomez scored a quite incredible seven minute hat-trick to take the lead. However, Leverkusen scored only minutes later for the game to end 3-3.

Back in 2013 the prospect of a strike force of Mario Gomez and Giuesppe Rossi was mouth watering.

The addition of Gomez gave viola fans genuine hope of Champions league football again and even a possible title challenge. The German was brought in for €20 million, and drew a crowd of 20,000 to the Franchi.

Things never worked though in Florence as with the combination of injuries and poor form, Mario never got settled in Italy.

The big German has been reborn since his move to Beskitas. With 26 goals and 6 assists Gomez had a phenomenal record whilst in Turkey. Now in the Bundesliga he has 12 goals for Wolfsburg and has scored 6 in 4 games and looks back to his best under new coach Andries Jonker.

These sort of stats are that Viola fans dreamt of and came to expect following a big money move.

On Monday night Rossi tripled his tally in Vigo, as Celta beat Las Palmas 3-1. Some expert finishes showed what immense quality he still has.

No one will know how good Giuseppe Rossi could have been if he didn't have an awful injury record. But it's safe to say he would he would have been a fantastic asset to most teams in Europe.

In the 13/14 season we saw the real Giuseppe Rossi where he scored 14 goals in 18 games, most notably his hat-trick against Juventus, in one of the most memorable viola performance in recent years.

It was the first game of the year 2014 where Rossi injured his cruciate ligament and sadly he's has never been able to recapture any consistent form.

Rossi and Gomez should have been something special, with the classic little and large combination that could have propelled Fiorentina to great things. With Juan Cuardado also in the attack it raises the questions of if what if? And where would Fiorentina be now if it had all worked out?