Fiorentina beat Hellas Verona 4-3 at the Stadio Artemio Franchi in Serie A on Monday night.
Five first half goals paved the way for a seven goal thriller that went the way of La Viola, with a brace from Borja Valero, and goals from Romulo, Juan Iturbe, and Juan Manuel Vargas in the first half.
A second half penalty from Giuseppe Rossi looked to seal the deal until Jorginho rattled Vincenzo Montella’s men with a goal 18 minutes from time.
Valero was allowed to drift past Jorginho on the edge of the box with ease to smash the ball low and hard beyond Rafael, but there was barely time to blink before Neto failed to deal with a long range Iturbe shot, and on loan defender Romulo pounced onto the rebound to equalize.
A blistering strike from Iturbe put Verona 2-1 up seven minutes later, the Argentine showed great technique to smash the ball into the top corner from outside the box, Fiorentina responded immediately with a deflected Valero shot from 25 yards to level things up.
A bizarre moment nearly gave the home side the advantage when a Rafael clearance ricocheted off Rossi, only for the ball to fizzle wide.
An explosive first half almost petered out with both sides adopting a more tactical approach, but a thunderous strike from Juan Vargas across Rafael ensured Fiorentina would head into the break leading 3-2.
Bosko Jankovic was shown a straight red card for a foul inside the area in the 51st minute, and Rossi duly stepped up to finish calmly from the spot. The Italian striker almost etched his name into the scoresheet again when he hit a scintillating shot at Verona’s goal but Rafael parried.
Jorginho then curled home from the edge of the box to give Verona a glimmer of hope in the 72nd minute. The goal instilled some confidence in the Mastini, but it was Fiorentina who saw the best of the last few chances of the match, and La Viola would have provided the Fiorentina faithful with an easier final few minutes if it weren’t for some fine saves from Verona keeper Rafael.
The two sides acknowledged the passing of Roma legend Amedeo Amadei with a minutes silence before the match commenced.
