Adrian Mutu's brace, Alberto Gilardino and Mario Alberto Santana gave Fiorentina a thrilling 4-3 victory in Budapest against Debrecen.

Despite his spectacular brace to beat Liverpool 2-0, Stevan Jovetic was sent to the bench in favour of Adrian Mutu and Alberto Gilardino, the latter returning from his one-match ban. Riccardo Montolivo was also dropped for a more solid midfield, while Mario Alberto Santana stepped in for the injured Marco Marchionni.

It took just two minutes for the Hungarians to take the lead. A Jozsef Varga cross from the left looped over everyone in the centre, but found Peter Czvitkovics unmarked to come sliding in at the back post.

Fiorentina did not wait long to respond with Mutu, equalising four minutes later. Dario Dainelli crossed into the centre for Mutu's volley into the ground that flashed past former Lecce goalkeeper Vukasin Poleksic into the far bottom corner.

Juan Manuel Vargas smacked a fierce strike against the crossbar, as that early goal woke the Italians up.

The Viola turned it around completely by the 10th minute! Mutu went on the counter and drew the goalkeeper before passing across to Gilardino to score from seven yards.

It was now one-way traffic, as Gilardino trapped the ball between two defenders and intelligently cut back for the on-rushing Mutu's strike in off the inside of the near post.

However, Debrecen had some promising strikers and Sebastien Frey got down well to palm a Gergely Rudolf snapshot round the upright.

It was a warning and Rudolf made it 3-2 soon after. It was a magnificent goal, as he skipped past two defenders down the left flank, ran to the edge of the box and curled a spectacular right-foot finish into the far top corner. It was what used to be called a Del Piero-style goal.

Coulibaly thought he had made it 3-3, but was at least a metre offside when he gathered the ball. Debrecen also made a tactical substitution, replacing centre-back Norbert Meszaros.

Santana gave Fiorentina an even bigger goal cushion. The Debrecen defence was falling to pieces, as Poleksic only parried a Mutu effort into the path of Santana for the 4-2.

Montolivo replaced Cristiano Zanetti for the second half and his cross was turned inches wide by a Mutu diving header. Dainelli had some fitness problems and made way for Cesare Natali.

Frey punched a Czvitkovics effort round the base of the upright and Mutu fired wide when he probably should've passed to Gilardino. Vargas' first touch let him down on a Mutu assist from a promising position.

Coulibaly hit the side-netting and then fired another chance wide after robbing Marco Donadel. Coulibaly came very close to making it 4-3 on 82 minutes when he pounced on a Donadel backpass, but Frey was equal to him. The Debrecen striker sprung the offside trap from midfield and the goalkeeper came out to narrow the angle.

It was 4-3 soon after, as Coulibaly got in front of Alessandro Gamberini to nod in from a free kick, giving Frey no chance. Debrecen poured forward in waves for stoppages, but could not turn it around.

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