Serie A | Fiorentina 2-1 Genoa: Acrobatic Kean magic sinks Vieira

epa11870040 Fiorentina’s foward Moise Kean scores the 1-0 goal during the Italian Serie A soccer match ACF Fiorentina vs Genoa CFC at Artemio Franchi Stadium in Florence, Italy, 02 February 2025. EPA-EFE/CLAUDIO GIOVANNINI

Moise Kean’s acrobatic volley and Albert Gudmundsson against his old club gave Fiorentina a morale-boosting victory over Patrick Vieira’s Genoa.

The Viola ended their crisis with a 2-1 victory away to Lazio, but Yacine Adli was sent off in that game and therefore suspended along with coach Raffaele Palladino. Danilo Cataldi, new signing Pablo Mari and Edoardo Bove were out of action, but Albert Gudmundsson faced his former club. Genoa missed Mattia Bani, Alessandro Zanoli, Ruslan Malinovskyi, Honest Ahanor and continued to freeze out Mario Balotelli.

See how it unfolded on the Liveblog.

There was controversy in the opening minutes, as Dodo went down when Morten Frendrup fell with a handful of his jersey, but following a VAR On-Field Review, the referee awarded the foul against the Fiorentina man.

The Viola did break the deadlock with a spectacular finish from Kean, as Rolando Mandragora stood up a free kick and the striker waited for it to drop over his shoulder, scoring with an acrobatic flick off the outside of the right boot as he twirled from 10 yards.

Gudmundsson was facing his former club and added a second goal, his splendid first touch with the inside of the right boot on a Robin Gosens roll across setting it up to fire in with his left, aided by a slight deflection.

Maxwell Cornet should’ve got one back for Genoa when sent through by Morten Thorsby, but ballooned over with the left foot as David De Gea came rushing out.

The second half was delayed by an injury to one of the assistant referees, who was replaced by fourth official Santoro.

Genoa got back into the game, as Koni De Winter was allowed a free header from six yards on the Aaron Martin corner kick.

Just as the visitors were pouring forward, they risked conceding at the other end, Johan Vasquez clearing the Dodo header off the line after Nicola Leali flapped at a Gosens cross.

Genoa almost scored a replica of their first goal, as De Winter had another free header on Martin’s corner, but this time De Gea managed to make the desperate one-handed reaction save to secure the Fiorentina victory.

Fiorentina 2-1 Genoa

Kean 9 (F), Gudmundsson 30 (F), De Winter 55 (G)

43

2

6

5

24

56′

90

21

8

10

9

71′

20

83′

1

3

22

4

20

82′

23

66′

32

2

66′

73

82′

19

70

46′

1

7

30

63

64

22

66

14

15

56′

65

71′

99

83′

59

39

33

53

15

76

9

46′

18

66′

10

66′

47

82′

21

82′