Fiorentina Rallies Twice to Stun Sassuolo 4-2 in Stoppage Time

Sassuolo took the lead, saw it wiped out twice, went back in front, and still ended up losing 2-4 to Fiorentina at the MAPEI Stadium. Six goals, a match decided in stoppage time, and a Fiorentina side that walked away with all three points despite falling behind just past the 20 minute mark.

Armand Laurienté opened the scoring in the 24th minute with a right footed finish from the center of the box, set up by a through ball from Sebastiano Esposito on the break. Sassuolo went into the break ahead, but the lead didn't survive long into the second half: just a minute after the restart, Mateo Pellegrino leveled things for Fiorentina with a low shot that found the corner of the net, assisted by Alieu Njie. Three minutes later, Njie himself put Fiorentina ahead 1-2 with a strike from outside the box that curled in off the right post, set up by Marco Brescianini.

Sassuolo refused to fold, and Laurienté struck again in the 64th minute, bending a shot from the left that nestled into the top right corner, confirmed after a VAR review. The 2-2 deadlock lasted barely more than a quarter of an hour: Franco Mastantuono, finishing with his left foot off a pass from Pote, made it 2-3 in the 78th minute, and deep into stoppage time, in the 92nd minute, Valde sealed the rout with a close range left footed finish after Cher Ndour set him up on another counterattack.

A More Clinical Fiorentina With Less of the Ball

What stands out is that Sassuolo controlled possession (58.2 percent to 41.8 percent) and completed more passes overall, but it was Fiorentina that generated the real danger: 15 shots to the home side's 7, and 6 on target compared to just 2. That gap shows up in clear chances too, 3 for Fiorentina against 2 for Sassuolo.

The expected goals numbers for the match, an in-house estimate calculated from the shots taken, back up that impression: Fiorentina racked up 2.37 against Sassuolo's 0.95. A gap that lines up with a scoreline in which the visitors needed fewer chances to do more damage.

What the Preview Said Versus What Happened on the Field

Ahead of the match, our projection split the odds almost evenly: 36 percent for a Sassuolo win, 27 percent for a draw and 37 percent for Fiorentina, with total expected goals of 3.06 (1.52 for the home side, 1.54 for the visitors). The result ended up lining up with that forecast favoring the away side, though the match produced plenty more goals than projected and, above all, far more drama than expected, with both sides staging comebacks right up to the finish.

Two Teams That Needed a Win

The Serie A standings explain why this match stung so much for both sides. Sassuolo and Fiorentina arrived level in the lower half of the table, with 8 points each after 10 matches played, Sassuolo sitting 16th with a goal difference of -10, and Fiorentina one spot above in 15th with -8. The win lets Fiorentina pull away a bit in a table where there's still plenty left to play for, while Sassuolo is left with the feeling of having had the match in hand twice, only to let it slip in stoppage time.

With Laurienté standing out as the lone scorer for the home side, netting both of Sassuolo's goals, and a Fiorentina side that spread its four goals among four different players, the match leaves a clear picture: a team that created less but finished better, cashing in on counterattacks at just the right moments to walk away with a result that, on the balance of play, didn't reflect who actually had more of the ball.