Fiorentina's players woke up on Sunday morning seeing their team in second place of the Serie A standings, but after a 4-1 win over Inter Milan, they have gone to bed as the new leaders of the Italian league. They have beaten a team that was unbeaten in the season and did it with authority away from home.
Things got rough for Inter from the get go at San Siro. The visiting side opened the scoreboard in the fourth minute with a well-executed penalty kick from Josip Ilicic. This was after Inter's goalkeeper Samir Handonovic had fouled Nikola Kalinic. This could have been a red card play, but the referee pulled out a yellow instead.
Should they still be considered underdogs?
Including last season, #Fiorentina have now won 10 out of 11 #SerieA games. pic.twitter.com/0FjjHwfXl6
— footballitalia (@footballitalia) September 27, 2015
Then the Kalinic show would begin. The Croatian striker scored his first out of three goals of the night in the 20th minute. He fired his shot from 25-yards out and set it in the top-right corner of the goal to double Fiorentina's lead. Only three minutes later, the same player scored again with a slide just to push the ball in.
Less than ten minutes later, Miranda is sent out of the game with a red card for Milan. He left his team one man down after a powerful slide over Kalinic who had a clear chance of scoring again. The referee did not hesitate of pulling out the card that may have done it for Inter and their aspirations for a comeback.
Paulo Sousa's side was confirming they are now the team to beat
Paulo Sousa deserves this. Fiorentina have always been beautiful but now they have the character and grinta of real winners. #Confidence
— Mina Rzouki (@Minarzouki) September 27, 2015
Inter was expecting a tough match against La Viola's, but being down 3-0 was most likely not in their plans. They tried to respond 60 minutes into the game with a goal from Mauro Icardi. Following a free-kick executed by Alex Telles, Icardi uses his head to push the ball and give those at San Siro something to celebrate.
Finally, it would be Kalinic who would once again score for the visiting side and seal the deal, as well as the Serie A lead for Fiorentina. Josip Ilicic delivered the ball to the 27-year-old striker so he could complete his hat-trick just eight yards away from goal.
It is a historic day for the club
Fiorentina back to the top of the table for the first time since 17 years, February 1999: Batistuta-Rui Costa-Trapattoni-Edmundo were there
— Tancredi Palmeri (@tancredipalmeri) September 27, 2015
While Inter had been winning every game up until this Sunday, Fiorentina proved that they were worthy of climbing up the ladder into the first place of the standings. Kalinic was by far the man of the match, as he was involved in every goal for his team plus in the red card situation that gave his team a numerical advantage.
Fiorentina now has the best defense in the tournament with only four goals allowed and the third best offense in the league with 11 goals to their favor. They will start defending their lead next week against Atalanta, but before that they will have to face Beleneses in the Europa League.
Even Inter's manager had few hopes of a comeback after a horrible start
Mancini: "after 30 minutes we'd conceded two shots [from open play] and three goals. when games start like this there's nothing you can do"
— Inter Offside (@inter_offside) September 27, 2015