VAR reached an historic milestone, as it was used to disallow SPAL’s goal for 2-1 up and instead give Fiorentina a penalty in their 4-1 victory.
The technology inevitably takes time to use, so when SPAL went on the counter to score moments after Federico Chiesa went down in the opposite box, the confusion and tension was palpable.
The Viola had Nikola Milenkovic and Marco Benassi back from suspension, but lost German Pezzella and Kevin Mirallas. SPAL had just one win in their last 14 Serie A games and switched to 4-4-2 with Simone Missiroli banned and Bosko Jankovic injured.
There was almost an away goal within 20 seconds, as Federico Chiesa – wearing the captain’s armband in Pezzella’s absence – flashed the ball across the face of goal and Manuel Lazzari did just enough to stop Cristiano Biraghi tapping in at the back post.
Soon after, Jordan Veretout had beaten Viviano only for Thiago Cionek to clear off the line, then Gerson forced a tough save at the base of the near stick.
SPAL’s start got even worse, as star man Lazzari pulled up clutching his hamstring and it looks to be a serious injury.
The hosts fought back, Mattia Valoti testing Alban Lafont from distance and Federico Ceccherini with a crucial sliding block to prevent Juraj Kucka’s pull-back reaching Mirco Antenucci.
Lafont got away with an awful pass straight to Antenucci, as he hesitated and allowed Milenkovic to fling himself in the way.
Moments later, Luis Muriel had a huge opportunity, his volley off the inside of the boot cracking against the underside of the bar from six yards.
SPAL took the lead when Antenucci intercepted another awful pass and Lafont got a hand to the Mirko Valdifiori daisy-cutter from the edge of the box, but could do nothing on Andrea Petagna’s follow-up.
Chiesa flashed an angled drive wide, but Fiorentina equalised on the stroke of half-time when Biraghi pulled back to just outside the area for a rocket of an Edimilson Fernandes strike that gave Viviano no chance.
After the restart, Chiesa rolled a perfect ball across the six-yard box and Thiago Cionek used every part of his body to prevent Marco Benassi getting the tap-in at the far post.
On 77 minutes, there was an extraordinary first for VAR, something people feared could happen ever since its introduction.
Chiesa tried to pull back from the by-line and went down under a Felipe challenge, but SPAL countered and took the 2-1 lead through a Mattia Valoti deflected strike. However, the referee went back to view the initial tackle, confirmed Felipe had fouled Chiesa, so disallowed the SPAL goal and awarded a Fiorentina penalty.
Instead of being 2-1 up, SPAL were suddenly 2-1 down when Jordan Veretout converted the spot-kick.
Still reeling, the hosts poured forward and were caught out in a similar situation to go 3-1 down, as Giovanni Simeone started the run from his own half and saw the angled drive bounce off the inside of the far post.
Valoti was stunned from the turnaround and caught in possession by Gerson for the fourth Fiorentina goal in the final minutes.