Fiorentina 7-1 Roma: Chiesa hat-trick eliminates toothless Roma in Coppa

Federico Chiesa scored a hat-trick with Luis Muriel, Marco Benassi and a Giovanni Simeone double, as Fiorentina humiliated Roma 7-1 in the Coppa Italia quarter-final.

Stefano Pioli’s men will go on to face Milan in the two-legged semi-final.

This was probably the only real shot at silverware for either club, so they fielded practically full-strength teams. Both had dramatic matches at the weekend, as the Viola fought their way to a 4-3 win over Chievo, while the Giallorossi fumbled a 3-0 lead to draw with Atalanta.

Within a couple of minutes, Federico Chiesa had clipped the outside of the post with a snapshot from outside the box.

He got the goal not long after, as Roma lost possession in what would’ve been a promising counter and were turned over themselves, Cristiani Biraghi rolling across for Chiesa to side-foot home, but Kostas Manolas completely missed the interception.

Bryan Cristante tried to equalise immediately, his header from an Aleksandar Kolarov corner clipping the upright, then on the counter Alessandro Florenzi’s sliding tackle on Luis Muriel was decisive.

However, the offside trap was picked apart by a Kevin Mirallas slide-rule pass and Chiesa timed his run perfectly to surprise Kolarov, keeping his cool to place the lob over stranded Robin Olsen.

It wasn’t all plain sailing for the Viola, as they lost Vitor Hugo to injury. Kolarov also made up for his defensive error by getting one back with a ferocious left-foot finish from the edge of the box.

However, Fiorentina restored the two-goal advantage when Biraghi turned Florenzi inside out and pulled back for Muriel’s shot to go in off Steven Nzonzi’s ankle.

Chiesa almost completed his hat-trick before half-time, his deflected strike fingertipped round the base of the near post by Olsen. At the other end, Alban Lafont used his leg to deflect a Patrik Schick header at the back post, although he didn’t seem to know much about it.

Roma threw on Edin Dzeko and Lorenzo Pellegrini for the second half, changing the momentum of the game, as the Giallorossi started to dominate. Zaniolo’s header was fingertipped out from under the bar, but once again their defending was dismal, as Benassi sprung the offside trap on a Muriel assist and nutmegged Olsen with his precise angled drive.

The Giallorossi lost their heads and Dzeko received a straight red card for dissent, complaining that Pellegrini was not given a free kick for Jordan Veretout’s challenge.

Moments later, Chiesa completed his hat-trick. Again there was a huge gap in defence on the counter, Benassi crossed and the son of Enrico reacted much quicker than anyone else, getting in front of Manolas to control and fire in from 10 yards.

Even after Chiesa was given a standing ovation, substitute Giovanni Simeone still added another for 6-1, again making the most of time and space in the box to meet the Edimilson Fernandes assist.

It was the first time Roma had conceded six goals in a Coppa Italia match since May 1961 and that was also against Fiorentina.

The final kick of the game added further humiliation, as Simeone was again sent through the middle to score fairly comfortably past Olsen for 7-1.

Highlights

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LINE-UPS

Fiorentina: Lafont; Milenkovic, Pezzella, Vitor Hugo (Laurini 22), Biraghi; Benassi, Veretout, Edimilson Fernandes; Chiesa (Gerson 77), Muriel (Simeone 72), Mirallas

Roma: Olsen; Florenzi, Fazio, Manolas, Kolarov; Nzonzi (Lorenzo Pellegrini 46), Cristante; Zaniolo, Pastore (Dzeko 46), El Shaarawy (De Rossi 77); Schick