Fiorentina saw their winning streak end at nine in all competition, as M’Bala Nzola made the most of defensive uncertainty to give Spezia a point, with Josip Brekalo and Cristiano Biraghi so close to victory.
The Viola had won their last nine official outings, including the midweek Coppa Italia semi-final 2-0 away to Cremonese. Sofyan Amrabat was suspended, with Riccardo Saponara and Salvatore Sirigu injured, so Gaetano Castrovilli stepped into the starting XI. Spezia were still hovering just above the drop zone, missing Kevin Agudelo, Mattia Caldara, Viktor Kovalenko, Emil Holm and Joao Moutinho, but M’Bala Nzola and Arkadiusz Reca returned.
Kelvin Amian tested Pietro Terracciano from distance and Nzola had the ball in the net after 19 minutes, but Emmanuel Gyasi was well offside for the assist.
Instead, Fiorentina took the lead as Cristiano Biraghi intercepted a wayward pass, surged forward on the counter and his pull-back from the by-line took a crucial deflection off Przemslaw Wisniewski to sneak in at the near post.
Spezia equalised with some classic route one football, as Bartlomiej Dragowski made a very long clearance that bounced awkwardly, Igor and Terracciano didn’t take control of the situation, so Nzola did.
Arthur Cabral hit the crossbar with a sensational overhead kick moments later, although the referee had already blown the whistle for a push.
Lucas Martinez Quarta’s header was straight at Dragowski on a Dodo cross, while Josip Brekalo thumped the base of the near post with almost his first touch off the bench.
Brekalo was also brought down just outside the box by Ethan Ampadu in a bookable offence, then Nico Gonzalez just failed to connect with a diving header from close range.
A desperate Dragowski fingertip save pushed Biraghi’s free kick out of the near top corner and the goalkeeper also managed to kick it clear to prevent anyone pouncing on the rebound.
It was all Fiorentina pushing for a winner as the yellow cards stacked up for Spezia, aside from a couple of dangerous Tio Cipot counter-attacks.
Brekalo’s through ball released Luka Jovic, whose dinked finish from a tight angle flashed across the face of goal and inches wide of the far post.
In the final minute, Eldor Shomurodov should’ve won it for Spezia when going clear on goal after an Igor error, but is weak attempted lob was practically a back-pass to Terracciano.
Fiorentina 1-1 Spezia
Wisniewski og 25 (F), Nzola 32 (S)
Player statistic
| Przemyslaw Wisniewski |  |
25' | ||
| 32' |  |
M’Bala Nzola (Assist: Bartlomiej Dragowski) | ||
| 35' |  |
Daniel Maldini | ||
| 45' | |
M’Bala Nzola | ||
| 45+1' | |
Emmanuel Gyasi |
| 63' | |
Ethan Ampadu | ||
| 68' | |
Simone Bastoni | ||
| 72' | |
Albin Ekdal | ||
| 77' | |
Przemyslaw Wisniewski |
Match statistic
