Fiorentina railroaded a visibly exhausted Roma with a soft Nico Gonzalez penalty and Giacomo Bonaventura strike to catch the Giallorossi and Atalanta in joint sixth place.
The Viola were only three points behind going into this round, while the Giallorossi needed a win to keep up with Lazio in fifth, so this was a head-to-head for European qualification. Fresh from Thursday’s Conference League semi-final win, Nicolò Zaniolo was rested and Henrikh Mkhitaryan injured, while Lucas Torreira was only fit for the bench and Gaetano Castrovilli out for the season.
It was a dramatic start to the match, as within a couple of minutes Nico Gonzalez rode one tackle and fell over the second from Rick Karsdorp, which was just inside the box and brought to the attention of the referee via VAR. Gonzalez converted the penalty himself, sending Rui Patricio the wrong way.
Fiorentina doubled their lead when Giacomo Bonaventura ran forward down the right and the Roma defenders just backed off, allowing him to pick his spot and bend it into the far bottom corner with his left foot.
Lorenzo Pellegrini’s free kick was palmed away, but Bonaventura had another goal disallowed for Cristiano Biraghi’s offside position in the build-up.
Pietro Terracciano got away with a very risky rush off his line to nod clear from Pellegrini. After the restart, Nico Gonzalez had arguably more of a penalty shout than the one he received, as Bryan Cristante had arms all over him, but this time VAR did not intervene.
Tammy Abraham’s first sight of goal was on 54 minutes, a header into the ground that bounced wide on Nicola Zalewski’s cross.
Rui Patricio flew to fingertip Sofiane Amrabat’s strike out from under the bar, while rushing off his line to close down Youssef Maleh.
There was at least one positive for Roma, as in the final minute Leonardo Spinazzola made his comeback after tearing the Achilles tendon during Italy’s triumphant EURO 2020 campaign.
Fiorentina 2-0 Roma
Nico Gonzalez pen 5 (F), Bonaventura 11 (F)
Wow football is finished!! Calling penalties like this and the one against Bologna!! Speechless