Fiorentina with Adrian Mutu beat Sampdoria 1-0 and is third in Serie A. Fiorentina started the match better and had the first chance in the 9th minute, when Gilardino connected with a nice cross by Santana, but sent his header off target.

On their second chance, the Viola opened the scoring with a nice move, Gianluca Comotto finding Zdravko Kuzmanovic on the right wing, the Swiss player then crossed it in for Riccardo Montolivo, who found the bottom corner of the net with a precise shot in the 19th minute.

The home side responded immediately as Darius Stankevicius made a nice move to go past Juan Vargas, and got himself in a good position to shoot, but sent the ball well over the crossbar (21’).

Just before the half hour mark, Mutu had a glorious chance to double the score for Fiorentina, as the Romanian broke the offside trap on a long ball and found himself alone in front of Luca Castellazzi, but fired his curling shot wide of the goal (27’).
Gilardino had another chance in the 36th minute, when Mutu sent in a great cross from the right and the former Milan striker once again failed to hit the target with his header, but it was a question of inches.

The home side responded a minute later, when Cassano picked up the ball on the edge of the area and fired a low, powerful shot that crashed against the post to Frey’s left.

The final chance of an eventful first half fell again to Fiorentina, Mutu winning the ball and going past two Sampdoria defenders in the 45th minute, but Castellazzi came off his line in time to anticipate his shot.
The second half started with no changes in either side. The match continued to be just as exciting as in the first half, and within a minute there was another chance for Fiorentina, as Mutu sent in a dangerous cross-shot that was touched away by Castellazzi, who prevented the ball from getting to the unmarked Santana.
In the 53rd minute Mutu, who was involved in all of Fiorentina’s most dangerous moves, had a great individual move up his sleeve as he freed himself on the left wing and cut inside for a curling shot, which unluckily hit the post. Mutu, who was a livewire this afternoon, had another chance in the 69th minute as he tried a violent shot on a headed assist by Gilardino, and found the gloves of the diving Castellazzi, who managed to control the ball.

Posted on December 22nd, 2008 by Dan
Filed under: Uncategorized