Mario Gomez broke his lengthy goal drought with a brace as Fiorentina beat Atalanta 3-1 to book a Coppa Italia quarter-final against Roma.
The Tuscans, who lost last season’s Final to Napoli, will go on to face Roma in the quarter-final on February 3.
It was an aggressive start from both sides, as Daniele Baselli drilled just wide and Mario Gomez had a shot charged down in the opening four minutes.
Mario Gomez broke his lengthy goal drought with a brace as Fiorentina beat Atalanta 3-1 to book a Coppa Italia quarter-final against Roma.
The Tuscans, who lost last season’s Final to Napoli, will go on to face Roma in the quarter-final on February 3.
It was an aggressive start from both sides, as Daniele Baselli drilled just wide and Mario Gomez had a shot charged down in the opening four minutes.
Gomez has been hugely unlucky with injuries and finishing, but he finally got the rub of the green when his shot from the edge of the box took a huge deflection off Giampaolo Bellini to wrong-foot Vlada Avramov.
The Viola doubled their lead in hugely controversial circumstances, as Guglielmo Stendardo clearly got the ball when tackling Gomez and prevented the German from pulling the trigger. Atalanta were understandably furious and a crowd of players tried to bully Gomez into ‘confessing’ it was not a foul, but Cuadrado nonetheless converted the penalty.
Micah Richards forced a save in an impressive first half, but Atalanta Coach Stefano Colantuono was sent off for insulting the referee.
Gomez completed his brace before the half-hour, as he sprung the offside trap on a Milan Badelj through ball and kept his cool to side-foot past Avramov.
Alejandro Gomez curled just wide, but then set up Rolando Bianchi for a splendid finish into the far bottom corner.
Marcos Alonso’s header was well held and Boukary Drame cleared a dangerous cross off the head of Cuadrado at the back post.
Atalanta were further angered when Alejandro Gomez was booked for simulation on a Stefan Savic challenge as he burst into the box.
Alessandro Diamanti made his debut for Fiorentina, replacing Cuadrado after a loan move from Guangzhou Evergrande. More bad news for Atalanta, as Drame was stretchered off in agony following an awkward fall, leaving his team with 10 men for the final 15 minutes.
Fiorentina also went down to 10, as Marcos Alonso completely mistimed his challenge on D’Alessandro for a second bookable offence.
Nonetheless, Mati Fernandez almost scored a fourth, his finish deflected over from five yards by D’Alessandro on a Babacar assist.
Fiorentina 3-1 Atalanta
Scorers: M Gomez 6, 28 (F), Cuadrado pen 11 (F), Bianchi 40 (A)
Fiorentina: Tatarusanu, Savic, Richards, Gonzalo Rodriguez, Marcos Alonso, Borja Valero (Mati Fernandez 66), Badelj, Kurtic, Vargas, Cuadrado (Diamanti 76), M Gomez (Babacar 71)
Atalanta: Avramov, Scaloni, Stendardo (Biava 46), Bellini, Dramè, Spinazzola (D’Alessandro 69), Migliaccio, Baselli, A Gomez, Boakye (Rosseti 60), Bianchi
Ref: Valeri
Sent off: Marcos Alonso 84 (F)