Fiorentina avenged last season’s 1-0 defeat at the Dacia Arena with a 2-0 victory over out-of-sorts Udinese on Sunday afternoon. After dropping points in a 2-2 draw against Genk in midweek Europa Conference League action, Vincenzo Italiano’s men posted a morale-boosting win in Serie A.
Udinesee’s first top-flight start in over ten years hit a new low. Despite dominating the game for most of the first half, Andrea Sottil’s team headed into the break on the back foot. Lucas Martinez Quarta picked up a long searching ball after finding himself unmarked behind the enemy lines, only to put it past Marco Silvestri for the match opener in the 32nd minute.
Fiorentina failed to shine in the opening 45 minutes in Udine. But they grabbed an all-important deadlock-breaker and weathered the storm toward the end of the first half to enter halftime 1-0 up. Pietro Terraciano turned on a hero mode to deny Florian Thauvin from point-blank range and settle Italiano’s nerves before the dressing room talk.
Italiano’s speech paid dividends as Fiorentina improved in the second half, but the chances went Udinese’s way. Lorenzo Lucca announced his candidacy for the ‘miss of the season.’ The Italian striker could hit the target from close range after being set on a silver platter by Festy Ebosele, with his waste eventually coming back to haunt his side.
Giacomo Bonaventura relentlessly punished Lucca’s blunder with a delightful curling effort deep into stoppage time to fire Fiorentina to their third win in five Serie A games this season. On the other hand, Udinese remain one of four winless sides, with Sottil’s future at the Dacia Arena in doubt.
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