TNT Sports
La Viola go second
By
Published 10/12/2005 at 22:40 GMT
Fiorentina beat Treviso 1-0 in Florence on Saturday night, and for once it was not Luca Toni that got the goal. Stefano Fiore struck to lift La Viola into second, a point ahead of Milan. Follow all of Sunday's Serie A action from 15:00cet LIVE on eurospor
Eurosport
Image credit: TNT Sports
Cesare Prandelli's side will now be hoping that the rossoneri and Milan rivals Inter drop points in Sunday's derby.
The first half was well dominated by the home side. They had lots of chances, mostly from set pieces. Toni, Stefano Fiore and Manuel Pasqual could have all put Fiorentina ahead.
Then in the 33rd minute, the referee Roland Herberg, awarded a penalty to Fiorentina. Toni - with 16 goals to his name this season - stepped up to take it but Adriano Zancope in the Treviso goal, dived to the right side and palmed it away.
Fiorentina continued to let good chances go by. Toni had another shot tipped away by Zancope and neither of the Fiorentina players in the area at the time was able to get a touch to the rebound.
Treviso, for their part, were dangerous only on set pieces but even then, they never really troubled Fiorentina keeper, Sebastian Frey. At the break it was 0-0.
The early stages of the second half saw Fiorentina continue to dominate and they were finally rewarded on the 51st minute. Pasqual sent a cross in from left and Fiore was unmarked at the far post. His header made it 1-0 to Fiorentina.
Prandelli's side had other chances, notably in the 62nd minute when a combination of bad defending from Treviso and tenacity from Fiorentina saw the Viola have three consecutive shots on target.
After that though, Fiorentina just took their foot off the pace. Treviso tried to take advantage and had a series of half chances. In the end, Fiorentina were never really troubled.
SIENA 1 - 0 EMPOLI
Siena claimed the honours in a drab Tuscan derby with an early Erjon Bogdani goal earning them a 1-0 triumph over Empoli.
Both sides went into the game in poor form with Empoli having lost three on the trot and Siena winless since September.
The first half could not have started any better for the home side.
In the second minute there was good work from Simone Vergassola and his cross was met by Bogdani, who put Siena ahead. After a good first 15 minutes, Siena sat back and let Empoli come on to them.
In spite of a few half chances, Empoli were not able to get back into it and the game turned quite scrappy. There were a lot of reckless challenges and not much in the way of goal scoring chances.
The second half was even poorer with neither side creating much. On several occasions the match threatened to get out of control as tempers flared. In the end Siena did what was necessary to take the three points, despite a few half chances for Empoli in the second period.
It finished 1-0 to Siena and that is an important victory for them .Empoli, meanwhile will be waiting for results tomorrow to see how much this faux pas will cost them in the league table.
Advertisement
Advertisement