Fiorentina-Bologna 2-2
GOALS: 25′ pt Castro; 7′ st Cambiaghi, 28′ st Gudmundsson (pen), 51′ st Kean (pen).
FIORENTINA (3-5-2): De Gea 7; Pongracic 5.5, Pablo Mari 5, Ranieri 5.5 (40′ st Piccoli sv); Dodò 5, Mandragora 5 (8′ st Ndour 6), Nicolussi Caviglia 5.5 (19′ st Sabiri 6), Fagioli 5 (8′ st Dzeko 6), Gosens 5 (8′ st Fortini 6); Kean 6, Gudmundsson 6. On the bench: Martinelli, Lezzerini, Comuzzo, Viti, Kouadio, Parisi, Sohm, Richardson, Fazzini. Coach: Pioli 6.
BOLOGNA (4-2-3-1): Skorupski 6.5; Holm 5, Heggem 6, Lucumi 6.5, Miranda 6; Ferguson 6.5, Frauler 6.5; Orsolini 6.5 (31′ st Bernardeschi 4.5), Fabbian 6.5 (31′ st Pobega sv), Cambiaghi 7 (19′ st Rowe 5.5, 41′ st Casale sv); Castro 7 (19′ st Dallinga 6). On the bench: Ravaglia, Pessina, De Silvestri, Zortea, Vitik, Lykogiannis, Moro, Sulemana, Dominguez. Coach: Niccolini (in place of the unavailable Italian) 5.5.
REFEREE: La Penna di Roma 5.
NOTE: Attendance approximately 20,000. Expelled: Holm, in the 38th minute, for a second yellow card. Booked: Gosens, Freuler, Rowe. Angles: 6-6. Recovery: 2′; 6′.
Bologna throws away the great opportunity to conquer the Franchi stadium and give themselves third place in Serie A for one evening by making a comeback from two goals when Fiorentina now seemed annihilated. For the Viola the final point, 2-2 the result, is a semi-miracle at the end of a confused match, full of errors, which is remedied with the decisive complicity of the guests and with two penalties, when the Tuscan fans were already protesting and with the game forms completely broken. In the end, the Tuscans’ ranking remains complicated, that of the Rossoblù is very good but Bologna still has a bad taste in their mouth. The guests were ahead 2-0 and had the 3-0 shot disallowed by the referee. Then the Viola equalized with two penalties and in the final, with the Emilians down to ten, they even came close to scoring the winner.
We expect a home team eager to follow up on the good feelings of the Conference League but apart from a wasted counterattack by Kean, who was offside at the moment of Gudmundsson’s headed assist, the Gigliati never showed up in Skorupski’s area. And so the guests slowly stick their heads out. In the 17th minute a prodigious intervention from De Gea was needed to say no to Fabbian, but in the 25th minute Castro did not forgive, dishing an assist from his opponent Pablo Mari into the goal. The Viola suffer in every part of the pitch, even in those where they would hypothetically have numerical superiority, with Bologna having the only flaw of not sinking on the outside, where Dodò and Gosens are in difficulty. The only real clear chance of the first half for Fiorentina occurred in the 30th minute when Ranieri incredibly put a corner kick over the crossbar one meter from goal.
Pioli waits to make his moves and in the 53rd minute the Bolognese double their lead with Cambiaghi, served by a cross from Holm. At that point Ndour, Fortini and Dzeko enter the field, with the Viola switching to an unscrupulous 3-4-1-2. The winning substitution would instead be made by Bologna’s assistant coach, now first coach, Niccolini, who inserts Dallinga, who makes a hat-trick but the referee cancels it for Orsolini’s offside at the start of the action. The penalty 17 minutes from the end due to a touch of Ferguson’s arm reopens everything with Gudmundsson scoring from the spot. The ending is incandescent, Bologna is left with ten men due to the expulsion of Holm, with Pioli also playing the Piccoli card and therefore ending up with three strikers and an attacking midfielder. Fiorentina equalized in the 96th minute with Kean wrong-footing Skorupski again with a penalty, this time awarded via VAR due to a handball by the much booed former player Bernardeschi. With time up, Dodò failed to make the sensational 3-2 with an empty net and no one could remain happy at the final whistle.