Fiorentina took a step towards the Coppa Italia final as they beat Cremonese away in the first leg of the semifinals played at the Stadio Giovanni Zini.
Arthur Cabral broke the deadlock 20 minutes into the game with his 13th goal of the season through a perfectly timed header on Cristiano Biraghi’s cross.Â
As reported by Opta, since the beginning of February the Brazilian has scored eight goals in all competitions: among Serie A players only Victor Osimhen (10) has done better in the period.
Nicolas Gonzalez doubled the lead for La Viola with little more than 15 minutes to play converting the penalty conceded by referee Maurizio Mariani after a check with VAR that resulted in a red card for Cremonese defender Emanuel Aiwu for a handball on the goal line. Â
It was a well deserved win for Fiorentina, the ninth consecutive across all competitions. It’s the longest streak in club’s history, equalling the previous records from the 1958/59 and the 1959/60 seasons.
Cremonese fought hard and had a couple chances to equalize but they felt short. Now they need a miracle to get through as they have to win away with a three goal margin on April 27th in the second leg if they want to get to the final.
Player ratings:
Cremonese (3-5-2): Sarr (5); Aiwu (5), Bianchetti (5,5), Vasquez (6); Pickel (5,5), Castagnetti (5), Benassi (5), Meite (5), Valeri (5); Ciofani (5,5), Tsadjout (5).
Substitutes: Buonaiuto (6), Dessers (6), Sernicola (6), Afena-Gyan (6), Lochoshvili (-).
Fiorentina (4-3-3): Terracciano (7); Dodo (6,5), Quarta (6), Igor (6), Biraghi (6,5); Barak (6), Amrabat (6,5), Mandragora (6); Ikoné (6), Cabral (7), Gonzalez (6,5).
Substitutes: Bonaventura (-), Jovic (-), Brekalo (-), Castrovilli (-).
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Andrea Agostinelli I GIFN
