Fiorentina beat Atalanta for the third time this season in all competition with a Krzysztof Piatek strike, but Ruslan Malinovskyi saw his potential equaliser controversially disallowed.
These sides already met twice this season, the Viola winning both Serie A and Coppa Italia games in Bergamo. Pietro Terracciano was out with tonsillitis, so Bartlomiej Dragowski made his first Serie A start since October. La Dea missed Luis Muriel, Duvan Zapata, Aleksei Miranchuk, Josip Ilicic and Jose Luis Palomino, so Jeremie Boga was the only available striker.
Juan Musso dealt with a Nico Gonzalez header from six yards on the Riccardo Sottil cross, while Dragowski had to rush off his line to close down Teun Koopmeiners, who was sent clear one-on-one by Ruslan Malinovskyi.
Serie A Liveblog: Fiorentina-Atalanta, Venezia-Genoa, Inter-Sassuolo, Udinese-Lazio
Lucas Torreira went off after a knock and Musso made a desperate fingertip save on Riccardo Sottil’s ferocious strike from the edge of the box.
Gaetano Castrovilli blasted over from a promising position straight after the restart and it was only a warning, as Fiorentina broke the deadlock.
Alvaro Odriozola burst down the right, Nico Gonzalez rolled it across off the outside of the boot and Piatek took a touch before beating Musso from close range.
Nikola Milenkovic made a big block on Koopmeiners and Malinovskyi did have the ball in the net on 61 minutes, but it was disallowed as Hans Hateboer was offside as the assist came through. Gian Piero Gasperini lost his temper and was sent off for dissent, arguing Hateboer didn’t touch the ball and was not interfering with play.
Demiral nodded a Giuseppe Pezzella cross over the bar and Malinovsyki drilled wide.
Fiorentina 1-0 Atalanta
Piatek 56 (F)
A weekend of upsets, are Inter next?
Thank you Fiorentina.