Mastantuono at last! He breaks the ice with a lightning-fast two-goal performance

Franco Mastantuono scores his first goals in a Fiorentina jersey: the Argentine forward, on loan from Real Madrid, finally broke his scoring drought at the most difficult moment for the Viola, trailing 1-0 in Venice after losing their first three Serie A matches.

Mastantuono scored a brace in the span of two minutes: in the 28th minute, he received the ball on the right, cut inside, and fired a curling left-footed shot from outside the box that caught Venice goalkeeper Stankovic off guard at the near post.

In the 30th minute, he doubled the lead: thanks to a mistake by Haps, Beto broke toward the Venezia goal and then laid the ball off to Mastantuono, who, with another clinical left-footed shot from the edge of the box, beat Stankovic, this time into the far corner.

It was the boost that sporting director Paratici had been hoping for; before the match, he explained the dismissal of Fabio Grosso and the return of Paolo Vanoli to the bench: “The decision came about after a discussion we had with the coach, during which he expressed little confidence in the team and little belief in the project. That said, we discussed the matter and decided it wasn’t worth continuing to insist on the coach’s stance, because it wouldn’t have been in the club’s best interest anyway. So we went in a different direction.”