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·18 February 2024

Serie A | Empoli 1-1 Fiorentina: Niang frustrates Beltran

M’Baye Niang scored his second consecutive penalty to give Empoli a precious point against Fiorentina after the Lucas Beltran opener.

This was a Tuscan Derby between two teams in very different form. The hosts were revitalised since the arrival of new coach Davide Nicola, picking up eight points from four rounds, but had Francesco Caputo and Tyronne Ebuehi injured. The Viola ended their dismal streak of results with a 5-1 hammering of Frosinone, but Christian Kouame, Dodo, Gaetano Castrovilli and Oliver Christensen missed out.

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There was a minute’s silence before all Serie A games this weekend and Fiorentina also wore black armbands for the five victims of a building site accident in Florence on Friday.

Emmanuel Gyasi was booked in the opening 60 seconds for a horribly mistimed tackle on Cristiano Biraghi.

Marco Davide Faraoni’s angled drive was beaten away by Elia Caprile, but Empoli lost Alberto Grassi to an abdominal muscle strain.

While he was off the field and Razvan Marin had not yet come on, 10-man Empoli conceded a goal, as Rolando Mandragora slipped a pass through a sea of legs for Lucas Beltran’s precise angled drive into the far bottom corner.

Nicolò Cambiaghi sprinted down the left and pulled back from the by-line, but there were no teammates ready to tap in.

Fiorentina came so close to a second when Lucas Martinez-Quarta got his head to a Biraghi free kick at the far post, but was only able to flick it onto the upright from point-blank range.

Empoli again failed to finish off a rapid Cambiaghi counter-attack, this time with Matteo Cancellieri prodding the weak finish straight at Pietro Terracciano.

Fiorentina had the first corner of the game, but were caught in possession and Cancellieri went on the counter-attack, pushed over by Faraoni for a penalty. Half-Time substitute M’Baye Niang buried it into the roof of the net to draw Empoli level with his second goal – and spot-kick – in as many appearances.

Riccardo Sottil’s angled drive took a slight deflection to skim the far post, while Terracciano’s gloves were stung by a Razvan Marin scorcher.

Rolando Mandragora fired over from distance, but deep into stoppages Fiorentina thought they had taken Caprile by surprise when he flapped at a Michael Kayode throw-in, so Giacomo Bonaventura hit a half-volley, but Sebastian Walukiewicz was back for the goal-line clearance.