Fiorentina 2-2 AC Milan: Viola battle back in entertaining encounter

Fiorentina and AC Milan battled to a 2-2 draw in a highly entertaining encounter at the Stadio Artemio Franchi on Sunday afternoon in Serie A.

Riccardo Montolivo and Mathieu Flamini put the Rossoneri ahead before Adem Ljajic and David Pizarro combined to salvage a point for the Viola.

The opening few minutes of the game were all Fiorentina, with Milan spending a bit of time chasing the ball, but despite their hosts early dominance, the first real chance of the game fell to the Rossoneri, with goalkeeper Emiliano Viviano and midfielder  Pizarro having to hastily combine in order to keep out a joint Ignazio Abate and Flamini attempt on goal. Shortly after, there were nervy moments for the Viola when Kevin-Prince Boateng turned in Mario Balotelli’s lay-off, but it was correctly discounted as offside.

Although the hosts enjoyed nearly twice the possession, there was always the feeling that a goal was soon to arrive, as the visitors began to recover from their earlier stupor and began to impose themselves on the game. In the 14th minute,  Montolivo took advantage of some lax defending by Pizarro to pick the Chilean’s pocket and unleash one of his trademark long-range strikes which beat Viviano for the first goal of the game.

The early goal shell-shocked Fiorentina and the match began to open up as Milan grew in confidence–and the fouls began to fly in at both ends, with numerous free-kick opportunities given to either side–all of which failed to have any impact on the score-line but still kept both Viviano and Christian Abbiati on their toes. Sulley Muntari, Montolivo, and Juan Cuadrado all received warnings for reckless play in the last 10 minutes of the first half.

But, just as the Viola were starting to claw themselves back into the game, they were dealt a double whammy in the last five minutes: first, defender Nenad Tomovic was sent off for an alleged intentional elbow on Stephan El Shaarawy, and shortly after, manager Vincenzo Montella was forced to substitute out Stevan Jovetic, who was a doubt for the match due to a previous injury, for Romulo.

Despite their man disadvantage, Fiorentina returned after the break and began to ask questions of their opponents, who despite their strength in numbers failed to test Viviano in the opening stages of the second half.

Yet, seemingly out of nowhere, Milan grabbed their second of the game shortly after the hour mark when goalscorer Montolivo turned provider, teeing up Flamini with an excellent cross for the Frenchman to tap in from close range.

Still, the hosts were not down and out for the count–shortly after, substitute Antonio Nocerino gave the Viola a way back into the game when he hauled down  Ljajic in the box, allowing the striker to step up and convert the resulting penalty.

Less than 10 minutes later, the already drama-filled clash took yet another turn when Fiorentina was awarded another penalty after young defender Mattia De Sciglio’s infringement and Pizarro made amends for his earlier errors by pulling the hosts even.

Following this, manager Massimiliano Allegri opted to add some bite to the Rossoneri’s attack, throwing on M’Baye Niang and Giampaolo Pazzini for Boateng and Flamini in an attempt to break the deadlock, but to no avail as both sides had to settle for a point a piece.