Juventus 0-3 Fiorentina
Fiorentina pulled off the biggest shock of the Serie A league season tonight with a 3-0 victory over Scudetto holders Juventus. It’s a win which pulls La Viola away from the relegation zone, while the Old Lady remains seven points from the top.
Juve are in a four-way battle for the title, with the two Milan clubs and Napoli fighting it out. The Serie A 2020 betting odds here at SBOTOP have the Old Lady neck and neck with Inter at 2.75, with AC Milan at 5.00 and Napoli at 8.00. Their three rivals all play tomorrow.
Defeat rounded off a bad day for Juventus. Before this game, they were stripped of three points when Napoli won an appeal against the decision to award I Bianconeri a win when the Azzurri failed to play their Serie A match in October (due to COVID-19).
Highlights of the game
Fiorentina had a brilliant start, stunning Juve in the third minute when Franck Ribery played a clever ball to Dusan Vlahovic who outpaced Leonardo Bonucci before beating Wojciech with a beautiful finish.
Cristiano Ronaldo tried to get his side back into the game quickly and had two shots blocked as the visitors’ defence held firm.
But then, before 20 minutes was up, the Old Lady’s night took another turn for the worse when Juan Cuadrado put in a horrific tackle on Gaetano Catrovilli. It could have been a leg-breaker and the Colombian looked mightily relieved to see the referee brandish a yellow card.
But justice was done when VAR intervened and Cuadrado was sent off to end his 200th appearance for Juventus rather sooner than he’d hoped.
Head coach Andrea Pirlo reacted by bringing off Aaron Ramsay to make room for wing-back Danilo, and the hooked midfielder reacted angrily, kicking a water bottle on his return to a seat in the stands.
Juve forward Federico Chiesa began the season as a Fiorentina player before his deadline switch to I Bianconeri and, as tempers frayed, his old team-mate Cristiano Biraghi ploughed into him to earn a yellow card.
La Viola came very close to a second goal when Borja Valero whistled a shot wide of the left post and then, moments later Castrovilli had an effort brilliantly saved by Szczesny.
And before the half-time break, for good measure, Ribery went into the book for a nasty challenge on Chiesa as La Viola went in 1-0 up.
Ronaldo had the ball in the net on 57 minutes, with a brilliant diving header from a Danilo cross, but he was marginally offside.
And in another marginal call, when the Portuguese star went down under a challenge from Castrovilli, in the corner of the Viola penalty area, he had a good shout for a spot-kick but his appeals were waved away.
Then, as the hosts pressed for an equaliser, Chiesa unleashed a fierce shot but was denied by a fine stop from Bart Dragowski.
And then the drama which unfolded had to be seen to be believed. With 15 minutes left on the clock the Viola’s lead was doubled when Biraghi crossed and Alex Sandro diverted the ball into this own net to make it 2-0.
Two then became three when Biraghi earned his second assist, passing to Martin Caceres for the former Juve full back to calmly slot home.
Game over!
Key statistics
On a famous night, La Viola ended a winless run of five matches, and six away from home, and also won away to Juventus for the first time in seven attempts.
Vlahovic’s goal was his third in consecutive Serie A games; he’s the first player under the age of 22 to achieve that feat for Fiorentina since 2005, and he’s fast becoming a hot property, already on the radar of some of Europe’s top clubs.
Cuadrado’s red card was Juventus’ fifth of the season, the joint highest in Europe’s top divisions.
What’s next?
Once this week’s fixtures are over the Italian league takes its mid season Christmas break. I Bianconeri returns on 3rd January with a home match against mid-table Udinese, who came into this round unbeaten in six and, with a home game against Benevento tomorrow, they’ll fancy going into the break with that run intact.
After a poor run of Serie A 2020 results, Cesare Prandelli returned to coach La Viola in November and this was his first victory. His side returns on the 3rd with a winnable home game against Bologna, and they really need to get something from that game before heading to Rome to take on Lazio three days later.
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