Dusan Vlahovic was twice clinical in front of goal to give Fiorentina a precious 2-0 victory and effectively end Lazio’s hopes of a top four finish.
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It was an important match for both teams, albeit different reasons, as the Viola were hovering above the drop zone and the Aquile pushing to stay in the race for a top four finish. Igor and Mohamed Fares sat out bans, with Borja Valero, Felipe Caicedo and Gonzalo Escalante injured.
Manuel Lazzari’s cross caused early panic before a Franck Ribery assist only skimmed the head of Giacomo Bonaventura and Adam Marusic needed a sensational sliding tackle to stop Dusan Vlahovic going clear on goal.
Bartlomiej Dragowski made a crucial save from close range on Joaquin Correa, who was set up by the Sergej Milinkovic-Savic knockdown on a Stefan Radu cross.
Radu turned a free header off target on a corner, while Ciro Immobile’s curler bounced off the far post after a very tight offside call. When the striker did avoid the flag, he was denied by a Nikola Milenkovic block.
However, it was Fiorentina who broke the deadlock with a well-worked move. Gaetano Castrovilli sent Cristiano Biraghi to the by-line and he pulled it back for the Vlahovic tap-in from a couple of yards. It was the 21-year-old’s 20th Serie A goal of the season.
Dragowski made another fingertip save on Milinkovic-Savic’s header, which was flagged offside and again so tight it would’ve required VAR had it gone in.
Erick Pulgar’s effort was deflected wide off Francesco Acerbi after an inspired Ribery pass, but on the stroke of half-time Milinkovic-Savic had a clash of heads with Pulgar, leaving him with a nosebleed.
Pezzella nodded a free kick wide and Pepe Reina stood tall to deny Vlahovic one-on-one. Luiz Felipe Ramos made his comeback three months after ankle surgery, but the second half was increasingly irritable with so many fouls and yellow cards, interrupting the flow of the game.
Vedat Muriqi’s header was straight at Dragowski, but Fiorentina doubled their lead with a well-taken Vlahovic header from a corner, shrugging off Luiz Felipe to nod in from seven yards.
There were so many cards flying around that someone had to get two eventually, and it was Andreas Pereira. The last kick of the game was yet another Dragowski save on Immobile’s long-range strike.