Fiorentina v Torino: Penalty Mania

By: Martha | January 19th, 2008

Oh my god I hate your haircut Not a pretty match, by any stretch of the imagination. To the surprise of even themselves, Toro came out flying, and put pressure on Fiorentina’s penalty area before the home side could even get hold of the ball. David Di Michele looked lively at the start, but Toro’s advantage faded quickly as the Viola settled down. Even once they gained their feet, though, Fiorentina were singularly unimpressive. After I bragged last week about how well Adrian Mutu and Bobo Vieri (who has the worst haircut KNOWN TO MAN) are working together, they looked at complete cross-purposes today, and their difficulties affected everyone — it was as if the Viola were the team with the cobbled-together lineup, rather than their opponents.

The whole first half was unimpressive for both teams, but given Torino’s injury problems and their struggles scoring on the road, they were never going to mind a ragged match, and are well-equipped with battlers like Eugenio Corini and Nikola Lazetić in the midfield and Cesare Natali and Marco Di Loreto busting ass at the back to keep things that way. Things changed, though, in injury time, when Mutu won a penalty which, after a lot of replays, looked like it might have been legit. Because he’s generous like that, Mutu let Vieri take it, and Bobo put it away, becoming the second player this week (after Francesco Totti) to score his 200th Serie A goal.

The goal settled the Viola down, and in the second half the started to play a bit in the space Toro were giving them but, thanks to the combination of tough defending and good goalkeeping by Matteo Sereni, they couldn’t extend their lead. And, just before the hour mark, Toro dragged themselves level with a gorgeously worked free kick: Corini chipped it in for Sasa Bjelanovic who, in his one useful moment of the match, headed it out wide to an on-rushing Vincenzo Grella, who put it in off the far post. It was the sort of free kick that grows out of a lot of work on the training ground, and is exactly what you’d expect for a team with as little attacking power as Toro: Set plays are essentially their only chance to score, and Walter Novellino is going to make sure they’re prepared to take advantage of the opportunities when they come. (They almost worked a similar play on a later free kick, but Sebastian Frey got down and made the save.)

Torino got their heads up after the goal and started pushing forward more while the Viola went into something of a lull, but the arrival of Zdravko Kuzmanovic woke Fiorentina up again, and they went into what was probably their most threatening period of the match. Kuzmanovic and Mario Alberto Santana created a lot down the right, and the home side were only kept out by some great work by Serini, who made several reaction saves. Eventually, though, his defense and the referee let him down, when Mutu took advantage of a horrible error just outside the box to skip through, only to go down just after Salvatore Lanna passed behind him. The referee pointed to the spot, but if anything Mutu caught his toe in the turf and tumbled on his own, despite having nothing but Sereni between himself and the goal. (RomaChris thinks the dive was bad enough that Mutu will get an Adriano-style suspension for it after the video from this week’s matches is examined — I’m sure we’ll both let you know what happens.) Mutu made no mistake about the PK, chipping it right down the middle and putting Fiorentina ahead for good with 15 minutes to go.

Martin Jorgensen almost made it 3-1 just before time, but Sereni (again) got down well, and it ended 2-1, a terrible unlucky result for a Toro team that just refuses to give in, no matter how much is thrown at them. For their part, the Viola are in fourth for a few hours, at least until Udinese play Milan tomorrow.