Bologna grabbed their first Stadio Franchi Serie A victory in 13 years, as Riccardo Orsolini converted a penalty and assisted Stefan Posch, but Fiorentina rue a Riccardo Saponara bicycle-kick that came off the bar.
The Viola qualified for the Coppa Italia semi-final, but their Serie A form was slipping with one point from three rounds. Gaetano Castrovilli and Riccardo Sottil were still out of action, while Sofyan Amrabat played with a protective mask after fracturing his nose. The Rossoblu missed Marko Arnautovic, Adama Soumaoro, Gary Medel, Kevin Bonifazi, Nicola Sansone and Lorenzo De Silvestri.
Joshua Zirkzee immediately forced a tough save out of Pietro Terracciano at the near post and there was chaos on the resulting corner. Terracciano managed to flap a Jerdy Schouten header off the line, then Luka Jovic performed a goal-line clearance on the Ferguson follow-up with the aid of the woodwork. It still wasn’t over, as VAR showed Antonin Barak had prevented Zirkzee from getting the third attempt by punching it off his chest, so Riccardo Orsolini converted the penalty.
Nico Gonzalez’s header was straight at Lukasz Skorupski, but the hosts equalised in somewhat chaotic fashion. Skorupski only meekly punched away an Amrabat effort and it came back in for Riccardo Saponara to flick into the empty net, as the goalkeeper was caught off his line.
Ferguson’s volley was denied by Terracciano after Roberto Soriano’s assist from the left, but Fiorentina had an extraordinary double chance on 36 minutes when Saponara’s acrobatic bicycle-kick bounced off the underside of the bar and Skorupski got back up to fingertip the Nico Gonzalez follow-up over.
Jovic also saw his strike pushed over the bar, but at the dawn of the second half Stefan Posch got a glancing header to Orsolini’s corner, surprising Terracciano.
Skorupski struggled to flap away a Dodo cross that swerved mid-air in the strong winds and Nikola Milenkovic risked an own goal cutting out the Posch cross for Zirkzee.
Orsolini’s first touch was poor, wasting a Zirkzee no-look pass that had sent him clear on goal. Josip Brekalo made his Fiorentina debut and Luka Jovic’s header whistled off target, while Arthur Cabral only managed to flick Brekalo’s assist into the arms of Skorupski.
The last kick of the game was a spectacular Nico Gonzalez overhead kick, but Skorupski plucked it out of the air.
Fiorentina 1-2 Bologna
Orsolini pen 14 (B), Saponara 19 (F), Posch 47 (B)