Romelu Lukaku gave Roma an early lead, but after a Paulo Dybala injury and two red cards for Nicola Zalewski and Lukaku, the nine men only gave up a point to Fiorentina.
This was a head-to-head for fourth place, separated by only one point. Chris Smalling, Marash Kumbulla, Tammy Abraham, Dodo and Gaetano Castrovilli were long-term absentees. The Viola had extra strain from Wednesday’s Coppa Italia tie with Parma, which went to extra time and a penalty shoot-out, while Nico Gonzalez was only fit for the bench.
It took just under five minutes to break the deadlock with a well-worked move down the right, Paulo Dybala’s cross off the outside of the left boot finding a Romelu Lukaku crouching header from six yards, avoiding the offside trap because he was behind the line of the ball.
There was almost a second, but Dybala drilled wide after Nicola Zalewski got away from Michael Kayode to pull back to the edge of the area.
Fiorentina also threatened, Giacomo Bonaventura flicking a ball over the top for M’Bala Nzola, as Rui Patricio had to come flying out to parry.
However, Roma lost Dybala after just 24 minutes when he mistimed the tackle on Arthur Melo and turned his right leg in an odd direction, limping off.
Fiorentina began to pin the hosts back, but as usual struggled to turn all this possession into genuine scoring opportunities, though Bryan Cristante and Zalewski were booked for fouls to stop dangerous runs.
Sardar Azmoun nodded over the bar after a risky Michael Kayode sliding tackle on Zalewski, while Bonaventura fired straight at Rui Patricio when he should’ve passed to Jonathan Ikone.
After the restart, Jonathan Ikone sprung the offside trap and cut inside Zalewski, but the angled drive was well smothered by Rui Patricio.
Roma also threatened a second from a corner, as Pietro Terracciano did not parry it far enough and Alfred Duncan’s desperate clearance prevented a tap-in.
M’Bala Nzola didn’t catch the volley properly on the Cristiano Biraghi corner, but substitute Azmoun limped off with what seemed to be a calf problem.
Bonaventura was very frustrated to see his finish with an audacious spin beat Rui Patricio only to bounce off the crossbar.
Things got even worse for Roma when Zalewski received a second yellow card for going in late on Kayode near the touchline, reducing them to 10 men.
Moments later, Fiorentina managed to equalise when Kouame’s cross from the left found Lucas Martinez-Quarta for a flicked header with his back to goal, looping into the far bottom corner.
Nico Gonzalez came on and immediately forced a reaction save from Rui Patricio with his header at the back post on a Bonaventura assist.
Martinez-Quarta almost got a second with his towering header on a Biraghi corner, but it was beaten away by Rui Patricio.
There was even more chaos in the final minutes, as Lukaku was shown a straight red card for his extremely late and high lunge on Kouame that tore a large hole in the Fiorentina man’s sock. Mourinho reacted on the touchline with a sarcastic laugh, then sent a ball-boy with a note for Rui Patricio.
There were seven minutes of stoppages, with Arthur trying a couple of pops from distance, but failing to turn the game around completely against nine men.
Roma 1-1 Fiorentina
Lukaku 5 (R), Martinez-Quarta 66 (F)
Sent off: Zalewski 65 (R), Lukaku 87 (R)
Player statistic
| Romelu Lukaku (Assist: Paulo Dybala) |
 |
5' | ||
| Bryan Cristante |  |
37' | ||
| Nicola Zalewski | |
41' |
| Nicola Zalewski |  |
64' | ||
| 64' | |
Jonathan Ikoné | ||
| 66' | |
Lucas Martínez Quarta (Assist: Christian Kouamé) | ||
| 75' | |
Cristiano Biraghi | ||
| Leandro Paredes | |
80' | ||
| 86' | |
Alfred Duncan | ||
| Romelu Lukaku |  |
87' | ||
| Diego Llorente | |
90+6' | ||
| 90+7' | |
Nikola Milenkovic |
Match statistic
