Pol Lirola was the hero as ten-man Fiorentina beat last season’s losing Coppa Italia finalists Atalanta 2-1 in the Round of 16 at the Stadio Artemio Franchi.
As a result, the Viola move into the quarter-finals of the tournament where they will face Serie A high-flyers Inter.
The Viola went ahead after 11 minutes when Dalbert pulled the ball back across goal for Patrick Cutrone who grabbed his first goal in his first start for his new club.
Atalanta were pounding on the door of Fiorentina and during the interval, Gian Piero Gasperini opted for a change when he brought off Remo Freuler and put former Fiorentina player, Josip Ilicic, on in his place.
The Slovenian international finished off a fantastic move for La Dea when Ruslan Malinovskyi fired the ball in towards Ilicic who slotted home just after the hour.
Minutes later Fiorentina captain German Pezzella went down in the Atalanta penalty box and received a second yellow card for an obvious dive.
It was a backs to the wall performance for Fiorentina and luck was perhaps on their side as they had the woodwork to thank on a couple of occasions as Atalanta went for the winner.
La Dea though were stung at the death, as Fiorentina swept forward through Dalbert and his cross was headed away, but only as far as Erick Pulgar who played a delightful ball to Lirola who carried on into the box before firing his side in front in the 86th minute.
