Fiorentina ended their winless run of eight matches in spectacular fashion, thumping Juventus 3-0 at the Allianz Stadium on Tuesday night to give Cesare Prandelli his first victory since taking over the side back in November.
The Bianconeri entered the contest on a high, having gone unbeaten in their 12 Serie A matches to date and last falling to the Viola at home back in 2008.
However after Dusan Vlahovic opened the scoring after just three minutes, Andrea Pirlo’s side were dealt a hammer blow when Juan Cuadrado was sent off for a dangerous tackle on Gaetano Castrovilli.
While Juve looked to get back into proceedings after the restart, it was all in vain as an Alex Sandro own goal and a Martin Caceres tap in gave Fiorentina their biggest win in Turin since 1955.
It was a dream start for Fiorentina as they found themselves ahead after just three minutes. Franck Ribery’s sumptuous through ball sent Vlahovic in on Wojciech Szczesny, and he made no mistake in chipping over the goalkeeper for his third goal in as many matches.
The goal was Fiorentina’s first from open play since December 7 against Genoa.
Juve looked rattled as the away side launched several dangerous counter-attacks, with Leonardo Bonucci and Matthijs de Ligt drawn out of position on several occasions.
Things went from bad to worse for the Bianconeri in the 17th minute when Juan Cuadrado caught Gaetano Castrovilli’s shin with a late crunching tackle. Initially booked, the Colombian was shown a straight red – Juve’s fourth of the Serie A season – after Federico La Penna consulted with VAR.
Castrovilli forced Szczesny into a diving stop after Bonucci gave the ball away cheaply, while Cristiano Ronaldo found his way past Nikola Milenkovic only to fire the ball into the side-netting.
Juventus thought they had levelled proceedings 10 minutes into the second half when Ronaldo headed home from inside the penalty area, however it was rightly called back for offside.
Fiorentina seemed content to sit back and hit on the counter despite being up a man and it nearly backfired when Federico Chiesa found some space and unleashed a stinging drive that forced Dragowski into action.
Juve’s chances of getting anything from the match were all but dashed in the 76th minute via an Alex Sandro own goal. Sofyan Amrabat’s shot was blocked with Cristiano Biraghi whipping in a cross from the left that the Brazilian put into his own goal as Christian Kouame watched on in delight.
The referee waved play on after Dragowski and Federico Bernardeschi collided in the penalty area, with Pavel Nedved storming off in the stands.
It proved to be the right decision as Fiorentina made it 3-0 soon after, with Ribery winning the ball from Bonucci finding Biraghi down the left again. The Italian fired in another dangerous cross that former Juve man Martin Caceres made no mistake in tapping home to wrap up a famous victory for the Viola.
