Guglielmo Vicario gave heroic efforts to keep Empoli in the Tuscan Derby, but Arthur Cabral scooped up a late point for Fiorentina.
Rolando Mandragora missed the target with a shot from the edge of the box, and then chaos ensued as Guglielmo Vicario mishandled a cross, stopped Antonin Barak’s rebound attempt, and finally nodded the ball over amid a flurry of players.
While Lorenzo Venuti’s volley and teammate Luka Jovic’s mistaken deflection of Riccardo Saponara’s shot narrowly missed the target, Empoli unexpectedly took the lead. Tommaso Baldanzi took ball from Sofyan Amrabat in the final third, and Francesco Caputo again anticipated the Moroccan international by setting up Nicolo Cambiaghi to score from 12 yards.
On minute 37, following a corner, Fiorentina had the ball in the net as Antonin Barak eventually bundled the ball over the line after Vicario fumbled the ball and made a save. However, Nico Gonzalez was offside in the buildup, according to the linesman and VAR.
Empoli believed they had doubled their advantage when Cambiaghi got down the right and rolled across, allowing Caputo to tap in from six yards away largely unimpeded. A defender failed to cut it out. Nevertheless, it was ruled to be offside after a protracted VAR review.
Fiorentina persisted in pressing, with Razvan Marin blocking a Jovic tap-in after a knockdown and his header from the ensuing corner going just wide.
Following a Mandragora in-swinging corner, Amrabat blasted over, Bandinelli nearly cleared the goal line of Lucas Martinez Quarta, and Nico Gonzalez also turned a header just inches off the mark.
Vicario, as per usual, saved the day when Nico Gonzalez was knocked down by Martinez Quarta’s cheeky close-range volley. Instead, Empoli came close to doubling their lead when Martinez Quarta, making his mark at the other end, cleared Caputo’s header from Marin’s corner off the line.
In the dying moments, Fiorentina did manage to draw even when Dodo’s right-side cross strangely looped to bounce off the crossbar and onto the path of Arthur Cabral’s header at the back post.
In last moments, it became a Fiorentina dominant game, but Vicario once more made a decisive play on Cabral’s volley at the back stick.
FOLLOW THIS ARTICLE ON TWITTER
READ MORE;
Sampdoria 1-2 Bologna: Orsolini wins the battle with a banger
Monza 0-1 Milan: Rossoneri continue winning streak with a narrow win over Monza