Fiorentina ran out comfortable 3-1 victors as they welcomed Atalanta to the Stadio Artemio Franchi for their Coppa Italia clash on Wednesday evening.
A Mario Gomez double, separated by a Juan Cuadrado gave the Gigliati a three goal lead within half an hour, before Rolando Bianchi scored a well placed finish before the break, which proved to be nothing more than a consolation.
La Viola got off to the perfect start as Gomez picked the ball up on the edge of the box and his driven strike deflected off of Gianpaolo Bellini and beyond stand-in Nerazzurri goalkeeper Vlada Avramov.
Ten minutes in the hosts won a penalty in controversial circumstances. Gomez fell under what appeared to be a good tackle from Guglielmo Stendardo. After minutes of protests from the Atalanta players, Cuadrado stepped up and confidently dispatched the ball into the bottom corner.
Halfway through the first half things goto worse for La Dea. Coach Stefano Colantuono was incensed by the referee not taking action against Micah Richards for catching Giulio Migliaccio with what he deemed to be a flailing arm. His frustrations spilled over only to result in him being sent off.
Gomez made it three before the half-hour mark as he broke the Atalanta offside trap and was left with an easy finish to beat Avramov for his second of the night.
The deficit was reduced to two goals before the break as Bianchi bagged his first goal since returning to the Bergamese side. He found the net with a low curling shot from the edge of the box.
The second half looked more like a training exercise as neither team really put in too much effort and played the game out, until Marcos Alonso got himself sent off late on.
