Categories
football Sports News

Vlahovic speculation set aside after Fiorentina forward closes on Ronaldo record

Dusan Vlahovic’s remarkable goalscoring feats continued on Saturday – and so too did discussion about his Fiorentina future.

Vlahovic netted twice in a 4-0 Serie A win over Salernitana to at least temporarily move Fiorentina up to fifth.

The team the Viola leapfrogged – Juventus, in action later on Saturday – have been hotly tipped to make a January move for the forward, who is quickly closing on a mark set by former Bianconeri man Cristiano Ronaldo.

Five-time Ballon d’Or winner Ronaldo scored 33 Serie A goals in 2020, the most of any player in a single calendar year in the past 60 seasons.

After this brace, Vlahovic has 32 in 2021 with two league games remaining, passing ex-Fiorentina forward Luca Toni’s 31 in 2005.

Juve are not the only team said to have been attracted by this sensational form, but vice-chairman Pavel Nedved – speaking ahead of the game against Venezia – was reluctant to discuss Vlahovic at this stage.

“We have to think about making our current players perform and trusting these players,” Nedved told DAZN. “They are strong players.

“We have a lot of young people and if they improve we can do well. Some work in January is not impossible but now let’s think about our players.”

Similarly, in his news conference, Fiorentina coach Vincenzo Italiano did not want to consider fears Vlahovic could leave.

“Right now I’m not afraid of anything except doing well in the last three games,” he said. “The goal is to do great things, even though I’ve never mentioned the word Europe. We want to keep this position.

“In the hug he gave me, Vlahovic reminded me that we managed to score goals in a situation we practised in training.”

Italiano preferred to reflect on Fiorentina’s improvement in front of goal, having now won five consecutive home games while scoring three or more goals for the first time since 1960.

That run has led to 21 goals in eight home games – Fiorentina’s best such start since 1960-61 (22 in eight) – with Vlahovic contributing to more than half of them, scoring 10 and assisting two.

Home and away, the 21-year-old has 15 goals through the first 17 games of the season, making him the youngest player to achieve that feat since both Jose Altafini and Antonio Valentin Angelillo in 1958-59.

Alberto Gilardino in 2008 was the last Fiorentina player to score in five straight, as Vlahovic has done.

“There was a moment in the season when we weren’t able to reach our forwards well,” Italiano said. “Now we can supply them. Having a striker with 15 goals is a huge satisfaction for us.”

Categories
football Slides Sports News Transfer News

Atletico Madrid ‘agree deal for Tottenham Hotspur-linked Dusan Vlahovic

Atletico Madrid have reportedly beaten Tottenham Hotspur to the signing of Fiorentina striker Dusan Vlahovic.

With continued uncertainty over Harry Kane’s future in North London, Spurs had supposedly identified Vlahovic as an ideal candidate to lead the line in the event of the England captain’s departure.

Inter Milan were rumoured to have been interested before striking a deal for Edin Dzeko, and Fiorentina intended to tie Vlahovic down to fresh terms amid interest from top European clubs.

However, Corriere dello Sport claims that Atletico have now agreed a €70m (£59.6m) deal to sign the Serbian from La Viola, forcing Tottenham to look elsewhere in their striker search.

Spurs’ pursuit of Lautaro Martinez also appears to be dead in the water following the latest update from the Argentine’s agent, and the Lilywhites are said to have turned their attention to Barcelona’s Martin Braithwaite.

Vlahovic prepares to leave Fiorentina after netting 21 goals in Serie A last season, and he kicked off the 2021-22 campaign with a brace in a Coppa Italia victory against Cosenza at the weekend.

Categories
football Slides Sports News

NAPOLI THRASH FIORENTINA TO GO THIRD ON SERIE A TABLE.

Lorenzo Insigne scored twice and set up another as Napoli thumped Fiorentina 6-0 to move third ahead of Roma who lost 3-0 to local rivals Lazio on Friday.

Insigne got the first goal in the fifth minute at the Diego Armando Maradona Stadium as Gennaro Gattuso’s side went four goals up in the first half.

Fiorentina missed chances to equalise with Napoli keeper David Ospina denying Franck Ribery before Diego Demme, Hirving Lozano and Piotr Zielinski notched three goals for the hosts in the last nine minutes before the break.

Napoli were awarded a penalty after Gaetano Castrovilli fouled Tiemoue Bakayoko. Insigne converted from the spot for his ninth goal this season.

Substitute Matteo Politano completed the rout with a minute to go.

“It looked easy but it wasn’t,” said Gattuso as Napoli moved level on points with Roma.

Atalanta missed the chance to move third, dropping points before next week’s trip to AC Milan with a goalless draw against lowly Genoa.

Gian Piero Gasperini’s side had won their first three matches of the year with a total of 12 goals scored.

Hans Hateboer rattled the post for Atalanta after 65 minutes in the best chance for the hosts who are sixth, eight points behind Milan. Genoa are 16th position, two points above the relegation zone.

Categories
football Slides Sports News

Juventus lose 3-0 in first league defeat of season

Juventus had to play most of the match at a numerical disadvantage after former Fiorentina winger Juan Cuadrado was sent off in the 18th minute.

Juventus fell to its first league defeat of the season as the 10-man Bianconeri lost 3-0 at home to relegation-threatened Fiorentina to slip further behind in Serie A on Tuesday.

Dušan Vlahović got Fiorentina off to the perfect start when he scored in the third minute. An Alex Sandro own goal and a late effort from former Juventus defender Martín Cáceres sealed the match for Fiorentina, which recorded its first win since Cesare Prandelli returned as coach.

Juventus had to play most of the match at a numerical disadvantage after former Fiorentina winger Juan Cuadrado was sent off in the 18th minute.

“We came on with the wrong attitude and when you go onto the field like this, you get into these bad situations, then we were down to 10 men and at that point it became difficult to recover,” Juventus coach Andrea Pirlo said.

“Occasionally it happens that you are not 100%, but in the second half we came out with the right mentality. It could have gone better. Now we have to start again with desire, thinking about the mistakes we made and carrying our project forward.”

Juventus had started the day in third place, four points behind Serie A leader AC Milan. But it began the match seven points behind — with a game in hand — after Napoli’s appeal against a default loss to the Bianconeri was upheld.

After the loss to Fiorentina, it was still seven points behind Milan but having played the same number of matches as the Rossoneri.

Milan is now the only remaining unbeaten team in Serie A.

Juventus heard the result of the appeal a few hours before kickoff in Turin. And its day swiftly went from bad to worse when Vlahović ran onto Franck Ribéry’s through ball and chipped it over the onrushing Juventus goalkeeper Wojciech Szczęsny.

Juve’s hopes of getting something from the match diminished just a quarter of an hour later when Cuadrado challenged Gaetano Castrovilli. The referee initially only booked Cuadrado but then showed him a straight red after looking at the incident again on video review.

Cristiano Ronaldo had a headed goal disallowed for offside at the start of the second half.

Both sides had chances to score before Cristiano Biraghi’s cross bounced in off the unfortunate Sandro in the 76th.

Biraghi also set up Fiorentina’s third, rolling across for Cáceres to tap into the back of the net.

MAGICAL MESSIAS

Junior Messias netted two goals to help Crotone beat Parma 2-1 and move off the bottom of the table for the first time this season.

It was only Crotone’s second win of the season and lifted the club into the 18th spot, two points from safety and three below Parma.

Both Messias’ goals were impressive, particularly the second — an exquisite lob over Parma goalkeeper Luigi Sepe shortly before halftime.

Juraj Kucka headed in for Parma in the 57th.