A disciplined Fiorentina display nonetheless saw them lose to Juventus, but how did Football Italia rate the Viola?
Words: Gaby McKay
Marco Sportiello – 5
The goalkeeper could do nothing to prevent Mario Mandzukic’s winner, but flapped at a couple of crosses in the first half.
Vincent Laurini – 4
Dealt well with Mario Mandzukic in the first half, but had to go off shortly after the break.
German Pezzella – 6.5
A disciplined Fiorentina display nonetheless saw them lose to Juventus, but how did Football Italia rate the Viola?
Words: Gaby McKay
Marco Sportiello – 5
The goalkeeper could do nothing to prevent Mario Mandzukic’s winner, but flapped at a couple of crosses in the first half.
Vincent Laurini – 4
Dealt well with Mario Mandzukic in the first half, but had to go off shortly after the break.
German Pezzella – 6.5
Fiorentina looked very much a Stefano Pioli side, thanks in no small part to the diligent performances of the two centre-backs.
Pezzella dealt with his countryman Gonzalo Higuain, stepping up cleverly on a number of occasions to catch the Juventus striker offside.
Davide Astori – 7
A real captain’s performance from Astori, who marshalled the defence well on a night where the Viola looked to frustrate and were defensively superb.
Caught in possession on a rare foray forward, but otherwise a near spotless display from the Italian international.
Cristiano Biraghi – 5.5
Given a torrid time by Juan Cuadrado, the left-back looked far more comfortable going forward than defending.
Nutmegged Stefano Sturaro to create a dangerous opportunity for his side, but Biraghi failed to stop the supply of dangerous crosses from the Bianconeri’s right flank.
Jordan Veretout – 6
Veretout was diligent in the middle of the park, but his shooting was wayward on a night where the Viola failed to make Wojciech Szczesny earn his win bonus.
Milan Badelj – 4.5
Struggled to match Blaise Matuidi’s energy in the centre of the park, a fact shown up badly when he hacked down the Frenchman just outside the penalty area.
Although VAR overturned the initial decision to give a penalty, he was shown a second yellow and as he trudged off the pitch in Turin, the Viola’s hopes of getting anything from the game went with him.
Marco Benassi – 6
A former Torino star, Benassi showed plenty of tenacity against the Granata’s city rivals but couldn’t bring the more subtle elements of his game in to play.
Stuck to his task in the middle, but lost his duel with Rodrigo Bentancur.
Cyril Thereau – 5.5
Thereau looked dangerous at times before being withdrawn for Carlos Sanchez after Badelj’s red card.
Federico Chiesa – 5
The youngster simply couldn’t get into the game on a night where his side were set up to defend.
Still showed a couple of nice touches, and he’ll only learn from this kind of experience.
Giovanni Simeone – 5.5
A thankless task for the striker in Turin, as he had almost nothing to feed off until the final moments of the match, when he saw his header go wide from a corner.
Substitutes
Bruno Gaspar – 3
Came on for Laurini on 51 minutes, and that change may well have swung the game in favour of the Old Lady.
Perhaps not yet fully up to speed, he lost Mandzukic for the Juventus goal and Pioli’s game plan was undone.
That the Croatian provided far more of a threat following Gaspar’s introduction is no coincidence.
Gil Dias – 4
His impact was largely negated by circumstance, as Fiorentina went down to 10-men shortly after the winger was introduced to provide greater attacking impetus.
Carlos Sanchez – 4.5
Came on to shore up the midfield after Badelj’s red card, and was solid if unspectacular.