Fiorentina Win Against Lifeless Bari

The Serie A this week­end started with Fiorentina vs. Bari at the Sta­dio Artemio Franchi. And while I expected Bari to take advan­tage of Fiorentina’s bad form, it was the Viola who took the game to Bari. The final result was a 2–1 win for the home side which dom­i­nated the game. Here’s what hap­pened in that match, and a look ahead to the other fix­tures we’ll see this weekend.

This game began with no action at all, nei­ther side could cre­ate a decent chance, and any shots being taken were either over the bar, or ridicu­lously wide. In this bor­ing begin­ning, it was Fiorentina who looked more dan­ger­ous with their high press­ing which caused Bari to slow down. The first goal even­tu­ally came in the 34th minute, a very nice strike by Don­adel which was prob­a­bly intended to be a cross for Gilardino, yet the ball swerved away from Gillet, onto the post and in.

A great strike which didn’t spark life into the game which con­tin­ued to be dif­fi­cult to enjoy. Giampiero Ventura’s side were slow, and unable to cre­ate any­thing, while Fiorentina were more dynamic but still didn’t cre­ate much. Finally in the 82nd minute, Fiorentina scored another goal, it began with a great move from Lja­jic who tried to curl a shot in, but Gillet par­ried. From there, Gilardino lept onto the ball, and some­how got it into the back of the net to make it 2–0.

The game seemed done and dusted, but Bari offered a small reac­tion to Fiorentina’s sec­ond goal, and the Gal­letti pulled one back in the 90th minute. A cor­ner was swung into Fiorentina’s box, and Parisi made great con­tact with his head to make the score 2–1. The last min­utes were filled with Fiorentina try­ing to waste time, while Bari fran­ti­cally scam­pered around in search of an impos­si­ble equalizer.

The match ended 2–1 for Fiorentina, and it’s a fair result for the win­ners mainly because it seemed like they were the only team play­ing for most of the match. This win bumps Fiorentina up the table into 11th place, but we’ll have to see how other teams do this week­end, and whether Fiorentina will be over­taken by teams play­ing their matches tomorrow.

Prob­a­bly the most inter­est­ing match which is hap­pen­ing tomor­row is Inter Milan — Sam­p­do­ria, a huge clash which Rafa Benitez’s side will need to win if they want to try and win the title. AC Milan will have to face Napoli in Naples, a tough match which could slow the rossoneri down in their run for the title. And the cur­rent table lead­ers, Lazio, will host Cagliari at the Sta­dio Olimpico.

It’s full of inter­est­ing matches com­ing up, and we had an okay one today. What are your thoughts regard­ing Fiorentina and Bari? Any pre­dic­tions for tomorrow’s matches? Mine are a 3–1 win for Inter Milan over Sam­p­do­ria, a 2–2 draw between Napoli and AC Milan, and a 2–0 win for Lazio. Share yours by com­ment­ing below!

Tagged as: AC Milan, Bari, Cagliari, Fiorentina, Gilardino, Inter Milan, Lazio, Napoli, Sampdoria, Serie A