Fiorentina ran riot against sorry Roma with a 5-1 victory as Moise Kean struck twice, Edoardo Bove scored against his old club, Mario Hermoso saw red and Mats Hummels scored an own goal on his debut.
Both sides had been in action with European victories on Thursday, but the Viola couldn’t afford much squad rotation after missing Albert Gudmundsson, Rolando Mandragora and Marin Pongracic. Kean returned from an ankle injury and it was a special game for lifelong Roma fan Edoardo Bove. Matias Soulé, Stephan El Shaarawy and Alexis Saelemaekers were out of action for the Giallorossi.
See how it unfolded on the Liveblog.
The hosts took the lead with their first foray forward, as Kean ran onto a through ball, completed a give and go with Lucas Beltran and placed a left-foot snooker shot into the far bottom corner around Evan Ndicka. He ran to the stands to literally hug the Viola supporters in a Stadio Franchi that is undergoing renovation work.
Kean nearly got a second a few minutes later, but Gianluca Mancini did enough to put him off on the Beltran roll across from the right this time.
The referee awarded a penalty when Zeki Celik and Bove went in on a loose ball simultaneously in the box, although it did seem as if the Roma defender got his toes to it first. Nonetheless, Beltran sent Mile Svilar the wrong way to double Fiorentina’s advantage.
The goalkeeper did get his fingertips to the Danilo Cataldi strike from 12 yards, pushing it onto the side-netting. Pietro Comuzzo threw himself in the path of a Bryan Cristante effort, while Paulo Dybala had his strike deflected over.
Ivan Juric was evidently unhappy, making a double substitution after just 32 minutes, hauling off Cristante and Angelino for Manu Koné and Nicola Zalewski.
It proved a smart decision, because Koné got them back into the game seven minutes later with a ferocious strike from outside the area into the far bottom corner. It was the French midfielder’s first Serie A goal.
However, moments later Celik was too weak in the challenge with Robin Gosens and appealed for a free kick as Bove burst down the left and rolled across for Kean to come sliding in at the back post.
Lorenzo Pellegrini had an effort charged down after the restart, but Fiorentina added a fourth when Yacine Adli rolled across from the right for Bove, who slalomed through three opponents to beat the on-rushing Svilar from seven yards. The lifelong Roma supporter and product of their youth academy did not celebrate, waving an apology.
Kean stung Svilar’s gloves and Roma thought they were back in it on the hour mark, but David De Gea flew to palm a Paulo Dybala free kick onto the upright.
Robin Gosens also saw his strike deflected over, but Roma went from bad to worse when Mario Hermoso pulled back Dodo just outside the area for his second bookable offence.
Juric finally bowed to the inevitable and gave summer signing Mats Hummels his debut to shore up the decimated defence.
Svilar palmed a ferocious Riccardo Sottil screamer away from the far top corner, but on the resulting Adli set play, Christian Kouame’s header was redirected into his own net by Hummels to completely wrong-foot the goalkeeper.
Gosens also tested Svilar at the near post and Sottil fired another over the bar, while Comuzzo limped off with a sprained ankle after Fiorentina completed all their substitutions.
Fiorentina 5-1 Roma
Kean 9 (F), Beltran pen 17 (F), Koné 39 (R), Kean 41 (F), Bove 52 (F), Hummels og 71 (F)
Sent off: Hermoso 65 (R)
