 04-07-07, 11:56 AM | #177 (permalink) |
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 Fiorentina - Torino 5th of December 2007 Artemio Franchi, Firenze Italian Serie A 2007/2008; Week 12    47'  Massimiliano Gobbi, 60' Luca Toni - 7' Silva, 26' Elvis Abbruscato  Match Highlights (6:06)
Torino threw away a 2:0 lead to draw Fiorentina in a fantastatic night of football in Florence as they had a goal disallowed and hit the woodwork twice.
The match between Torino and Fiorentina was set to be very interesting as two teams were seperated by two points only and were on hot streak. Torino lost Lionel Mathis in match againist Juventus, so with Simone Barone out aswell, Silva had a secure place in the line-up for quite long time.
Torino got an early lead when Dario Dainelli's clearance went as far as Silva whose shot took a deflection off Tomas Ujfalusi and Sebastien Frey, who was out of goal, couldn't do anything to stop the youngster from scoring his first ever Torino goal.
 Silva (behind Fiorentina's no. 17) scored from edge of the area
Raffaele Schiavi got yellow-carded before Riccardo Montolivo's shot was punched over by Marcelo Grohe and Stefano Fiore made a fantastic block on Massimiliano Gobbi's header to block a header.
Torino got a two-nil lead when Silva combined brilliantly with Elvis Abbruscato to set the striker through on goal as last years top scorer didn't make a mistake with the opportunity and his ball rolled into the goal by a bounce from post.
Torino could've scored once more, but Fiore headed Nikola Lazetic's cross into the wrong side of the post and it chiped wide.
Elvis Abbruscato banged Marco Andreollis long ball past the goal before the end of the half which was largely dominated by Torino. Cedric Konan came in at half-time to replace injuried Roberto Stellone.
Fiorentina got back into it quickly after the break got over as Luca Toni managed to give a pass to Gobbi who was given a free way to the Torino penalty area as he finished off at near post.
Torino tried to get two-goal lead back immediatelly, but Schiavi's long ball was smothered againist Frey by Abbruscato and on second attempt he hit the sidenet.
Fiorentina got very close to equalizing, but Montolivo's header from Gobbi's cross rattled back off the cross-bar and Andreolli cleared.
Less than minute later Adrian Mutu brilliantly headed a Manuel Pasqual deep cross, but Grohe got his fingertips to it and it went over.
Marco Donadel tried a 35 metre free-kick and pulled a great save out of Marcelo Grohe as the home side was piling on the pressure.
Torino got a counter-attack quickly after the free-kick though as Cedric Konan's shot got deflected on the foot of Alessandro Rosina, but Frey got his hand to the shot and made the ball go wide of the near post.
Nikola Lazetic could've put Torino ahead just minutes later, but his shot from Abbruscato's deflected cross flew into the cross-bar.
Lazetic then gave a great cross to Cedric Konan who didn't have much time to take the shot and he shot it straight at Frey who put his hands together to parry it.
Liverani's shot was deflected besides the post by Luca Toni, but Grohe reacted with an amazing reflex save.
Schiavi made a very bad clearing header towards his own goal, but amazingly with Grohe out of the goal, Toni couldn't get it on target and he missed an empty net.
But he made up for it just minutes later when the show of football continued as Gobbi continued his fantastic display on right wing as his cross was headed in by big Italian striker at near post.
This didn't calm the game down just yet though. Five minutes later Torino thought they took back the lead when Abbruscato banged in a Konan weak shot at near post, but assistant referee was waving his flag for offside and Torino people were in shock. The replays suggested that if there was any offside it was Abbruscato's toe what was past the last defender.
Di Natale came on for Stefano Fiore in 66th minute as right after that, Grohe made a great save on powerful Riccardo Montolivo effort from outside the area.
Grohe made another save on Mutu and tipped his header over before Rosina twice missed from 25 metres with a free-kick and in-game shot.
Tamas almost costed Torino the game when he lost the ball to Toni outside of the area as Gobbi picked it up only to see his saved wide by Grohe.
In final minutes the show continued, Abbruscato shot wide from distance, but Montolivo saw his brilliant shot from similiar position saved from top corner by Grohe.
Then Toni's shot in one on one situation was slowed down enough by Grohe for Andreolli to clear it off the line. Konan sidenetted a header and Alexander Farnerud placed a soft chip into the hands of man of the match Grohe, but the scoreline remained the same.
By a far best match of the Serie A season will definately go down to history book's of both Torino and Fiorentina, while Torino remain on the first position with Juventus having a draw aswell. There definately remains a sour taste in mouths of Torino fans after having a legal goal disallowed and hitting the woodwork twice.
Torino: 1-Marcelo Grohe; 4-Marco Andreolli, 5-Gabriel Tamas, 2-Raffaele Schiavi, 22-Iacopo Balestri; 7-Stefano Fiore (66' 13-Antonio Di Natale), 28-Silva, 17-Nikola Lazetic; 10-Alessandro Rosina; 11-Roberto Stellone (45' 20-Cedric Konan), 19-Elvis Abbruscato
Cautioned  : 13' Raffaele Schiavi
Other Results
Empoli 0:1 Roma
Juventus 0:0 Parma
Lazio 1:1 Messina
Torino Position: 1st
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