Fiorentina emerged from the international break and journeyed north and east to Venezia for the first time in 17 years. Manager Vincenzo Italiano chose to rest all the South Americans who played for their respective national teams, leaving his XI looking rather far from ideal, but we figured the lineup still had enough quality to put a recently-promoted side to the sword.
The hosts, however, came out pressing like demons, and Fiorentina never seemed to get comfortable. They never found any kind of rhythm in possession despite dominating the ball and never really looked like scoring. Venezia, on the other hand, scored via Mattia Aramu on a quick break and had numerous chances on the counterattack. To compound the misery, Riccardo Sottil was sent off for a second soft yellow card.
This was the kind of listless, passionless performance we tend to associated more with Giuseppe Iachini’s teams than Italiano’s, so you’d better believe there was some wailing and gnashing of teeth on the back of this one, even if the site went down during the game and cut off the comments (probably not a bad thing). If you want to get in on that action, we’ve collected our coverage right down there.