Juventus 3 Fiorentina 1
The one fixture that Fioretnina want to win is this one. It goes back to 1980 when the scudetto went to the last game. Juve were at Catanzaro, Fiorentina at Cagliari. Juve were awarded a penalty converted by Liam Brady and Fiorentina refused one. Fast forward to the sale of Roberto Baggio from us to Juve which led to 6 days rioting. The final straw was after the UEFA Fina of 1990 where there was hooliganism in the second home leg against Juve, Fiorentina were penalised and had to play in their home games in Avellino, a city with Juve support.
Thr real problem in my view is that Fiorentina are a good team but not one that will win the scudetto or win the Champions League whereas Juve can and do achieve both. Further when the two teams meet the Turin outfit seem to come out always on top. Last year in the semi final of the Coppa Fiorentina even won the first leg in Turin but the Old Lady won at the Franchi and went through.
Yesterday spice was added as Fiorentina went into the game lying second and Juve sixth but the latter had won their last five games and were in form. Fiorentina got off to a good start when Bernardeschi was fouled in the box by Chieiini and Ilicic scored the penalty. Watching the video replay the referee made the right and brave decision as Chielini trod on his foot. I know we Fiorentina fans are paranoid but the referee clearly favoured the home side and seemed to be evening up after the penalty. When one of our players went down the referee played on but not when a Juve players hit the floor. I have to admit that Juve after going a goal down played with intensity and aggression. Juan Caudrado who last season was our star player quickly equalised. I am sure he was just looking to direct the header into the six yard box but it went in a parabola over our keeper’ s head. After that the play was even with Fiorentina defending well. It was typical that Juve took the lead through Manzudic on the 80th minute and then Dybala, a brilliant young forward added the third. My Fiorentina friends messaged that it was the same old story that Juve found a way to win. To be fair they had more cutting edge as Kalinic made little impact on world class defence and Ilicic frustratingly went missing. I put on a brave face: we are still second and having a great season but deep down I am hurting.
