Serie A | Fiorentina 2-1 Milan: De Gea double penalty save inspires fiery victory | OneFootball

Fiorentina fought beat Milan 2-1 as David De Gea saved two penalties with Yacine Adli and Albert Gudmundsson scoring the goals, despite a stunning Christian Pulisic volley.

The Rossoneri had won three Serie A games in a row, but lost 1-0 to Bayer Leverkusen midweek in the Champions League. Alvaro Morata returned to the starting XI, though Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Luka Jovic, David Calabria, Ismael Bennacer, Marco Sportiello and Alessandro Florenzi didn’t make the trip. The Viola opened their Conference League campaign on Thursday against The New Saints, but lost Rolando Mandragora to a knee injury, so Yacine Adli faced his parent club. That was only their second victory in nine competitive games under Raffaele Palladino.

See how it unfolded on the Liveblog.

Morata’s glancing header turned an Emerson Royal cross just wide, but Fiorentina received a penalty when birthday boy Theo Hernandez mistimed his clearance and kicked Dodo’s boot. Moise Kean stepped up rather than Albert Gudmundsson and saw his central attempt smothered by Mike Maignan.

Kean then got himself in the way of a Danilo Cataldi strike and was offside when turning in the rebound, while Rafael Leao’s strike was deflected over by Pietro Comuzzo.

Fiorentina did take the lead with a player owned by Milan, as Adli gathered from a throw-in, spun Christian Pulisic and bent a right-foot snooker shot in off the inside of the far post. He refused to celebrate against his old club.

Milan were also awarded a spot-kick when Tijjani Reijnders tripped over Luca Ranieri as he ran onto the Pulisic through ball. However, Theo Hernandez also saw his penalty saved, this time De Gea getting right down into the bottom corner for the one-handed save. Not since January 2022 had two penalties been saved by two different goalkeepers in the same Serie A match, then it was Cagliari-Fiorentina.

Kean had the ball in the net straight after the restart, but was clearly offside running onto a ball over the top.

The referee pointed to the spot again on a corner when Matteo Gabbia anticipated Kean to the bouncing ball and had his foot kicked instead. Tammy Abraham decided to take it this time, but De Gea managed another incredible save at the near bottom corner. Not since Federico Marchetti in Carpi-Lazio in May 2016 had a goalkeeper saved two penalties in the same Serie A match.

Milan did equalise four minutes later from open play, as Theo Hernandez’s cross found Pulisic at the back post for an extraordinary right-foot volley, hooking it back across the face of goal and into the far top corner.

Kean tried to replicate that move on the Robin Gosens cross, but got it wrong and turned over the bar when he had time to control it.

Ranieri had to time his sliding tackle absolutely perfectly to stop Pulisic scoring from a Rafael Leao through ball, and he did, while De Gea stuck out a boot to parry Abraham’s angled drive.

Fiorentina restored their advantage when Kean knocked down a long De Gea ball over the top, as Gudmundsson controlled with his left foot, let it bounce and smashed in with the right from just inside the area.

It remained fiery and wide open, Fiorentina coach Raffaele Palladino sent off for dissent and De Gea managing a desperate one-armed save on the Samuel Chukwueze strike that bounced right in front of him.

Abraham was also denied by a desperate Ranieri block in the box on the Noah Okafor pull-back, but in stoppages Kean’s screamer from the D smashed against the underside of the bar and bounced back out.

Losing when missing a penalty on his birthday proved too much for Theo Hernandez, who was sent off for insulting the referee after the final whistle.

Fiorentina 2-1 Milan

Adli 35 (F), Pulisic 60 (M), Gudmundsson 73 (F)

Saved penalty: Kean 22 (F), Theo Hernandez 45 (M), Abraham 56 (M)

Sent off: Theo Hernandez 96 (M)