Fiorentina rout Pisa 3-0 behind goals from Pellegrino, Gnonto and Pote

It took the Artemio Franchi 39 minutes to break loose, but once it did, Fiorentina never let go of control of the match. The final score was 3-0 against Pisa, with goals coming in each key stretch of the game: one before halftime, another past the hour mark and the third deep into stoppage time. A comfortable result, though one built with more patience than the scoreline suggests.

The first half was dominant but low on reward. Pisa gave a warning with a shot from Emanuele Rao that hit the left post in the 29th minute, and four minutes later another of his attempts grazed the crossbar. Fiorentina, who held the initiative with more possession and more chances, could not find the breakthrough until Mateo Pellegrino showed up in the 39th minute with a left-footed shot from the center of the box, just inside the post, for the 1-0 that stood at halftime.

In the second half, the match shifted gears with the substitutions. Fiorentina brought on offensive reinforcements, with Alieu Njie and Pote replacing Brescianini and Mastantuono, and that move paid off with the second goal: in the 70th minute, Wilfried Gnonto finished with his right foot from the center of the box after an assist from Njie himself, making it 2-0. Pisa, who had also turned to their bench with Petagna, Moreo and Angori in search of a spark up front, had no answer left.

The finishing touch came in stoppage time, with Fiorentina already managing the lead. Pote struck with his right foot from outside the box, a low shot just inside the left post, in the 91st minute, off an assist from Alex Jimenez, sealing the final 3-0.

The numbers behind the dominance

Fiorentina led in nearly every category: more possession, more shots and far more clear scoring chances. Pisa, despite Rao's warnings in the first half, could not turn that pressure into goals.

The foul count also tells part of the story: 17 for Fiorentina against just 9 for Pisa, with yellow cards shown to Mastantuono, Loyola, Canestrelli and Valde over the course of the match. Based on our xG estimate calculated from the shots taken in the match, Fiorentina generated 1.43 expected goals to Pisa's 0.90, a gap that confirms the home side's edge, though a tighter one than the final score suggests.

What the preview said

The projection published ahead of the match gave Fiorentina a 71% chance of winning, with 19% for a draw and just 10% for Pisa, and forecast a scoreline built on 2.3 expected goals for the home side and 0.77 for the visitors. The final result, a 3-0 with three different scorers and an opponent that barely troubled the scoreboard, ended up matching that preview, though Pisa showed more life than expected in the first half with their two warning shots off the post and crossbar.

With this result, Fiorentina puts away their Coppa Italia match without any real scares, leaning on the finishing of Pellegrino, Gnonto and Pote, and on a second half where the substitutions off the bench ended up tipping the balance.