AC Milan 2-0 at the Artemio Franchi on Sunday night in Serie A, to give Paulo Sousa his first league victory as coach.
Goals from Marcos Alonso and Josip Ilicic secured victory for the Viola, as the Rossoneri saw centre-back Rodrigo Ely sent-off on his Serie A debut in Florence.
In a passionate opening 45 minutes there was little to separate the two sides, although the Milan defence seemed intent on gifting Fiorentina the lead.
After six minutes an error of judgement from Diego Lopez saw Ilicic reach a loose ball ahead of the Milan goalkeeper, however, the 27-year-old saw his lofted effort clawed away.
Then Ely allowed Nikola Kalinic to burst through on goal, but again Lopez kept the Viola at bay once more.
The Brazilian’s night went from bad-to-worse on 37 minutes receiving a second yellow card to leave the Rossoneri with 10 men, who then fell behind from the resulting Alonso free-kick, which was beautifully guided into the top corner.
Within 10 minutes of the restart Fiorentina had virtually seen-off Milan, Ilicic converting the penalty he had won after a foul by Alessio Romagnoli.
Despite the early setback Sinisa Mihajlovic’s men did attempt to trouble their hosts, however, with a two-goal advantage the Viola saw the match out with relative ease.
In a season the Viola hope will bring Champions League qualification, Fiorentina now travel to Torino looking to build on this victory, whereas Milan, with there own European aspirations, will look to finally put some points on the board when Empoli visit the Giuseppe Meazza on Saturday evening.
