Pre-match

With Bartłomiej Drągowski, Nikola Milenković, and Germán Pezzella all out, Giuseppe Iachini fielded a Lucas Martínez Quarta—Maxi Olivera—Martín Cáceres backline ahead of Pietro Terracciano. DJ Serse Cosmi had Junior Messias fit enough to start, and also handed a senior debut to 19-year-old goalkeeper Gian Marco Crespi.

First half

That unfamiliar defense proved to be just as fragile as you might’ve suspected. The Crotone tridente of Simy Nankwo, Adam Ounas, and Junior Messias wreaked havoc in the Fiorentina rearguard; only Pietro Terracciano’s typically excellent play kept the visitors in it.

Second half

A bad pass out the back from LMQ gave Crotone a short field to attack, but Messias couldn’t make it count, pinging his shot off the underside of the bar and back out. Goal line technology confirmed that it never crossed.

Full time

Goals: You’re joking, right?

Cards: Djidji 44’, Zanellato 83’; Pulgar 25’, Castrovilli 44’

What’s next

Fiorentina wind up this embarrassing season with another embarrassing performance, losing the chance to climb up to 11th and possibly earn an extra €2.5ish million. They’ll finish either 14th or 15th, pending Spezia’s result against AS Roma tomorrow.

Crotone, of course, have been relegated for weeks, but can go out on a high note, having outplayed a storied club and kept just their third clean sheet of the season despite conceding more goals (92) than any team in Serie A ever has; that the Viola never looked like puncturing that defense despite having Dušan Vlahović should say everything you need to know about how much they need to fix over this summer.