Atalanta grab a point with their only shot on target from Joakim Maehle, as Fiorentina converted Arthur Cabral’s penalty and rattled the woodwork in a draw that does little for either side.
The Viola were one of the form teams in Europe, with one foot in the Conference League semi-final and another in the Coppa Italia Final, amassing 11 wins and two draws in all competition. Sofyan Amrabat and Salvatore Sirigu were injured, while La Dea missed Ademola Lookman, Matteo Ruggeri and Hans Hateboer, but Teun Koopmeiners returned to the starting XI.
Lucas Martinez-Quarta had the chance to open the scoring within 90 seconds, but nodded Rolando Mandragora’s free kick wide of the far post.
Antonin Barak and Arthur Cabral tested Marco Sportiello from distance, while Nico Gonzalez’s fantastic curler shaved a coat of paint off the far top corner.
Sportiello had to be on alert when Cabral’s header on a corner took a deflection off Gonzalez from point-blank range, making the save with his arm and chest.
Duvan Zapata blasted over the bar and Rasmus Hojlund almost managed to intercept a Nikola Milenkovic back-pass to Pietro Terracciano.
Atalanta took the lead completely against the run of play, as Ederson blocked off an attempt to clear and Joakim Maehle won a challenge with Aleksa Terzic to burst through a gap in the defence and dink the finish over Terracciano with the aid of a deflection off Milenkovic. Maehle was booked for making a ‘silence’ gesture towards the home fans.
After the restart, it continued to be a Fiorentina monologue with Antonin Barak straight at the goalkeeper and Gaetano Castrovilli off target, but a very long VAR review found that Rafael Toloi had missed the attempted header and instead the ball struck his raised arm. Cabral converted the penalty by sending Sportiello the wrong way.
Barak came on at half-time, but only lasted 17 minutes after a nasty accidental collision with Toloi and very heavy landing left him feeling dizzy.
Hojlund nodded off target and perhaps should’ve left the Koopmeiners cross for Ederson in a better position behind him, while Cristiano Biraghi almost scored with his first touch of the game, a free kick that curled around the wall to thump the far post.
Following another 1-1 draw with Spezia, Vincenzo Italiano’s team again dominated possession and had 12 attempts on goal to one, but still couldn’t get the victory.
In stoppages Sportiello made a sensational one-handed save on Giacomo Bonaventura’s header from a corner, blocking it on the line.
Atalanta almost scored too, as Alessandro Bianco’s back-pass was a gift to Jeremie Boga, but Nico Gonzalez sprinted back to intercept the assist for Luis Muriel.
Fiorentina 1-1 Atalanta
Maehle 37 (A), Cabral pen 56 (F)
Player statistic
| 37' |  |
Joakim Maehle | ||
| 38' |  |
Joakim Maehle |
| Arthur Cabral |  |
56' | ||
| 60' | |
Éderson | ||
| 71' | |
Rafael Tolói | ||
| Lucas Martínez Quarta | |
75' |
Match statistic
