Serie A | Parma 1-1 Fiorentina: Viola scrape Tardini stalemate

Only a remarkable Cristiano Biraghi free kick allowed Fiorentina to scrape a point away to newly-promoted Parma, despite the Marin Pongracic red card, after Dennis Man’s opener and wasted chances.

See how it unfolded on the Liveblog.

The Ducali were promoted by winning the Serie B title last season, but began this campaign with a few problems. Enrico Delprato was suspended, with Hernani, Gianluca Di Chiara, Gabriel Charpentier and Adrian Benedyczak injured. Their season had already started with a surprise Coppa Italia First Round home defeat to Palermo on August 11. The Viola had Luca Ranieri suspended and new signing Albert Gudmundsson not yet ready, but Sofyan Amrabat surprisingly started even when transfer-listed, as new buys Andrea Colpani and Moise Kean played upfront.

Rolando Mandragora stung new goalkeeper Zion Suzuki’s gloves from distance in the opening minutes, then he required a double save to prevent the Moise Kean tap-in and then Andrea Colpani’s follow-up.

Parma opened the scoring somewhat against the run of play, as it was rolled across by Yoan Bonny for Dennis Man just inside the box, given time to control and curl with the inside of the left foot into the far top corner.

That sparked the hosts into life, as moments later Simon Sohm smashed his strike onto the crossbar and Valentin Mihaila’s rebound was parried by Terracciano.

Dodo saw his scorcher skim the near top corner and Fiorentina managed to equalise with a remarkable goal, blasting a free kick straight in from a frankly unlikely angle on the outer edge of the area.

The Tuscans went down to 10 men, as debutant Marin Pongracic received his second yellow card of the match for an avoidable sliding tackle on Matteo Cancellieri.

Wylan Cyprien wasted an incredible opportunity to give Parma the victory late on, as he was sent clear by a defensive error on a throw-in only to horribly scuff the finish wide one-on-one.