Fiorentina's bench inflicts further pain on fragile Sassuolo
Franco Mastantuono's late strike and a stoppage-time Valdepeñas goal gave Fiorentina a 4-2 win at Sassuolo, despite Armand Laurienté scoring twice for the hosts.
Fiorentina came from behind twice to beat Sassuolo 4-2 at the Mapei Stadium, with Franco Mastantuono's 79th-minute goal and a Víctor Valdepeñas finish in stoppage time settling a match Armand Laurienté had twice dragged level, Football Italia reported.
Sassuolo arrived 14th on eight points, still reeling from a 6-2 home defeat to Lazio three days earlier, and Alberto Aquilani was without the suspended Kristian Thorstvedt plus the long-term absentees Koné and Leysen, though Jay Idzes returned to the side. Fiorentina sat just above the relegation zone on five points following a 2-2 draw with Atalanta, with Paolo Vanoli again missing Marin Pongračić and Parisi.
Laurienté's double couldn't mask Sassuolo's defensive cracks
Sassuolo's opener came against the balance of play. Sebastiano Esposito sprung Laurienté on the counter-attack in the 25th minute, and the Frenchman finished low into the bottom corner. It was the kind of transition goal that punishes a team committed going forward, and Fiorentina had enjoyed the better of the early possession without troubling Stefano Turati until that point.
The pattern recurred after half-time. Sassuolo's second goal, Laurienté's own, arrived in the 65th minute when he met Nemanja Matić's cross and finished from a tight angle, a goal that referee Marcenaro reviewed for a possible handball in the build-up before letting it stand. Twice in the game Sassuolo found a route back into it through quick, direct moments rather than sustained control, and twice Fiorentina responded before the hosts could build on the lead.
Fiorentina's bench turned the contest in the final third
Fiorentina's equalisers either side of half-time showed a team capable of scoring in different ways. Alieu Njie set up Mateo Pellegrino for the first leveller in first-half stoppage time, then combined with Marco Brescianini five minutes into the second half to score himself with a low finish from outside the box, his effort beating Turati into the bottom-right corner.
The decisive move came from Vanoli's changes. With the game tied at 2-2, he introduced Wilfried Gnonto, Christ Inao Oulaï, Beto and Pote from the bench. Within two minutes, Pote's lay-off found Mastantuono, who controlled it and drove a left-footed shot into the bottom-left corner to put Fiorentina back in front for good. It was the kind of impact substitution that can swing a tight match, with a fresh forward combining instantly with another to break a stalemate neither side's starters had been able to settle.
Valdepeñas, also introduced from the bench, added the fourth in the third minute of stoppage time, assisted by Cher Ndour, to put the result beyond reasonable doubt after Beto had earlier blazed over from distance as Fiorentina pushed to make the game safe.
A free kick and an injury underlined the chaos
Mastantuono's influence was evident even before his goal. He dragged an early effort wide, curled a free kick narrowly past the top corner as Fiorentina searched for an opener, and later forced a save from Turati with a fine solo run. That volume of chances from one player, culminating in the matchwinner, reflected how central he was to Fiorentina's attacking threat all afternoon.
Sassuolo's night worsened further when Sebastian Walukiewicz was forced off injured, adding to a defensive unit already missing key personnel and disrupting any attempt to shore up a backline that had conceded four fresh off a six-goal collapse against Lazio. Radu Drăgușin, Ibrahim Sulemana and Njie were all booked in a scrappy passage before half-time, a sign of the physical edge to a match that produced six goals and repeated swings in momentum.
The result leaves Fiorentina's recovery from the bottom of the table ongoing, built on a response from the bench that outweighed Sassuolo's two moments of individual quality from Laurienté. For Aquilani's side, the concern is now twofold: a defence still missing key figures through suspension and long-term absence, and a backline further thinned by injury in a match they led only through moments of transition rather than sustained control.