Empoli defeated local rivals Fiorentina with a Diego Farias header and great saves from Viola-owned goalkeeper Bartlomiej Dragowski to give themselves hope.
This result means Aurelio Andreazzoli’s men move to within two points of Udinese and set up a tense final few rounds.
Empoli defeated local rivals Fiorentina with a Diego Farias header and great saves from Viola-owned goalkeeper Bartlomiej Dragowski to give themselves hope.
This result means Aurelio Andreazzoli’s men move to within two points of Udinese and set up a tense final few rounds.
The Tuscan Derby had two sides in dire form, as Empoli remain in the drop zone and the Viola have slipped into the bottom half of the table and are now winless in 11. Federico Chiesa was only on the bench after suffering from flu symptoms, but the hosts had Matias Silvestre back amid an injury crisis ruling out Luca Antonelli, Antonino La Gumina, Cristian Dell’Orco, Domenico Maietta and more.
It was a lightning start with drama in the opening 60 seconds. Ciccio Caputo’s shot was parried by an outstretched Alban Lafont foot, then the rebound Traore strike charged down by German Pezzella. The referee seemed to point to the spot, but after viewing it on VAR, he saw the ball had only clipped Pezzella’s elbow as he tried to get out of the way.
The Viola fought back and Fiorentina-owned Bartlomiej Dragowski showed them what they’re missing with a fine one-handed save to palm Luis Muriel’s header round the near post.
Muriel also blasted wide from distance and Giovanni Simeone came sliding in, but unable to get the final touch to the low cross.
Rade Krunic drilled a powerful effort across the face of goal, skimming the far post with nobody able to get the tap-in.
Fiorentina had a great chance straight after the restart, as Cristian Biraghi stung Dragowski’s gloves and Simeone turned the rebound on to the side-netting.
Moments later, Lafont had to stick out a trailing leg to stop Krunic finishing a well-worked Empoli team move from close range. Kevin Mirallas and Simeone wasted promising chances and turned over the bar, but were made to pay, as Empoli broke through.
Giovanni Di Lorenzo skipped past two down the right and floated his cross on to the head of Diego Farias. Incredibly, the pint-sized ex-Cagliari striker managed to sneak up behind Nikola Milenkovic to time his header perfectly.
Fiorentina fought back immediately, as over the next five minutes Simeone’s looping header had clipped the crossbar, then Dragowski needed a double save on Muriel’s angled drive and the Cholito follow-up from point-blank range.
Federico Chiesa came on and immediately made an impact, his ferocious strike at the near post somehow beaten away by Dragowski.
When Simeone’s looping header did beat Dragowski, Junior Hamed Traore came to the rescue with a goal-line clearance at the back post.
Dragowski made sure Fiorentina really regretted loaning him out in January with an extraordinary reaction save, denying Dusan Vlahovic’s diving header from four yards on a Marco Benassi cross.
Lafont wanted to get in on the act too, getting down to push a Di Lorenzo header out from the near bottom corner.
It got even worse for Fiorentina after the final whistle, as Jordan Veretout was shown the red card for insulting the referee.
Empoli 1-0 Fiorentina
Farias 54 (E)
Empoli: Dragowski; Veseli, Silvestre, Nikolaou; Di Lorenzo, Traore, Bennacer, Krunic (Salih Ucan 90), Pajac; Caputo, Farias (Acquah 74)
Fiorentina: Lafont; Milenkovic, Pezzella (Gerson 86), Vitor Hugo; Mirallas (Chiesa 60), Benassi, Edimilson Fernandes, Veretout, Biraghi; Simeone, Muriel (Vlahovic 67)
Ref: Irrati