Franco Mastantuono scored the decisive goal eleven minutes from time as Fiorentina finally won again, beating Sassuolo 4-2 at the Mapei Stadium on Monday to end a 52-day winless run that had dragged the Viola into the Serie A relegation fight.
Twice Fiorentina led, twice Armand Laurienté dragged Sassuolo level, and a draw that suited nobody looked inevitable — until Mastantuono, in his first Serie A campaign after arriving from Real Madrid, collected a pass from substitute Pedro Gonçalves and fired a left-footed finish into the bottom corner on 79 minutes. Teenager Víctor Valdepeñas sealed it in stoppage time, and a team that had not tasted victory since September 11 could finally breathe.
Twice in front, twice pegged back
Fiorentina started the brighter side, Mastantuono dragging an early effort wide and Stefano Turati saving Mateo Pellegrino's header, but Sassuolo struck first against the run of play on 25 minutes. Sebastiano Esposito sent Laurienté through on the counter-attack and the Frenchman drilled a low shot into the bottom-left corner.
The visitors kept coming. Mastantuono curled a free-kick just past the top corner, and in first-half stoppage time Alieu Njie fed Pellegrino, who cut inside his marker and fired into the bottom-left corner to level at 1-1. Five minutes after the restart the turnaround was complete, Marco Brescianini releasing Njie to beat Turati with a low shot from outside the area.
Sassuolo, though, refused to fold. On 65 minutes Nemanja Matić crossed and Laurienté met it from a tight angle, firing into the top-right corner for his second of the night and 2-2. As Sportsnet noted in its European roundup, the game was tied at half-time and tied again at 65 minutes — a relegation six-pointer swinging from end to end.
Mastantuono makes the difference late on
The decisive moments came from the bench and from the teenager Fiorentina are building around. Gonçalves, introduced as a substitute, laid the ball off for Mastantuono on the edge of the box, and the Argentine controlled it and drove his finish into the bottom-left corner — the goal Football Italia credited with finally breaking Sassuolo's resistance. Valdepeñas then wrapped it up at 90+3, set up by Cher Ndour, to make the long wait end in something close to comfort.
For Sassuolo the numbers are grim: a fourth consecutive defeat, and a defence breached four times at home by a side that arrived without a win in almost two months. Laurienté's brace deserved more than it got, but a team that concedes at 45+2, 79 and 90+3 minutes is beating itself as much as it is being beaten.
So what does it mean?
Fiorentina, on their second coach of the season, climb to 16th and out of the immediate drop-zone picture on a night when the relegation battle tightened everywhere: Parma's 3-0 win at Atalanta later on Monday lifted Parma to 15th, while Sassuolo sit 17th on goal difference. At the other end of the table the weekend had already seen Juventus beat Napoli 2-0, but down at the bottom these are the results that decide seasons.
The test now is whether one wild night in Reggio Emilia becomes a run. Fiorentina's next fixtures will not allow them to defend the way they did for Laurienté's two goals, and Mastantuono cannot rescue them in the 79th minute every week — but a first win since September changes the mood, the training ground and the table all at once.
Beyond the Final Whistle: this is why you build around a player like Mastantuono. Relegation fights are not won by systems in November, they are won by the one player willing to demand the ball at 2-2 with eleven minutes left — and Fiorentina, after 52 days without a win, finally found theirs.
Can Mastantuono's winner spark a Fiorentina revival, or was this just one chaotic night against a Sassuolo side in freefall? Have your say in the comments.
