Coming off a tough but only slightly unfair loss to Inter Milan, Fiorentina went back on the road to Udine, which is always a really tough trip for this team: this is where Davide Astori didn’t wake up, after all. The Zebrette have been surprisingly good this year as well, so facing them without the suspended Nicolás González and the injured Gaetano Castrovilli felt a bit iffy.
The Viola won a very soft early penalty through Giacomo Bonaventura, and Dušan Vlahović slotted it home for his 10th straight in the league. Things rather degenerated after that, though, as the visitors’ trademark high pressure rather fell off, leading to a herky jerky half that didn’t really favor anyone.
After the break, the hosts emerged re-energized and applied the screws as Fiorentina sat back, looking to soak up the pressure and hit on the break. While the team needed Bartłomiej Drągowski to make a few very good saves, it was mostly a mature display to go on the road, take the lead, offer a threat on the counter, and largely prevent their opponents from creating anything significant.
We did our usual full coverage thing, so take a look right down there for all our usual stuff.