Fiorentina ended their poor away record with a 3-2 victory at the Stadio Dall’Ara, sending them into fifth place with Dusan Vlahovic again decisive.
These teams were glued together on 24 points with the opportunity to leap into fifth place, so there was plenty at stake in the Derby dell’Appennino. Marko Arnautovic and Jerdy Schouten were absent for the hosts, while Gaetano Castrovilli, Erick Pulgar, Matija Nastasic and Bartlomiej Dragowski missed out for the Viola.
Nico Gonzalez returned from the start after COVID and he had the first chance, curling just wide from the edge of the area.
Roberto Soriano saw his cheeky back-heel flick deflected wide by Nikola Milenkovic and Musa Barrow volleyed off target after a rare Bologna attack, as the Viola dominated possession.
Fiorentina broke the deadlock when Gonzalez swung a cross to the back post for the head of Youssouf Maleh, his debut Serie A goal.
Bologna drew level with a spectacular strike, as Mattias Svanberg provided the cross from the right and Barrow had the perfect contact on the volley this time.
Biraghi restored Fiorentina’s lead with a classic free kick, curled over the wall and into the near top corner, giving Lukasz Skorupski no chance.
Skorupski was entirely at fault for the third goal, though, as he foolishly went into the challenge when Gonzalez was already going wide and almost out of the penalty area. Vlahovic converted the spot-kick for Fiorentina.
It seemed to be heading towards an inevitable conclusion until Aaron Hickey cut inside from the left, unleashed a right-foot shot that took a deflection off Alvaro Odriozola to wrong-foot Pietro Terracciano and get Bologna back into it, setting up a tense finale.
Bologna 2-3 Fiorentina
Maleh 33 (F), Barrow 42 (B), Biraghi 51 (F), Vlahovic pen 66 (F), Hickey 82 (B)