Fiorentina win five-goal thriller

Posted Sunday, February 05, 2012 by PA

Fiorentina won back-to-back league games for the first time this season as they prevented Udinese from closing the gap at the top of the Serie A table with a 3-2 victory.

Leaders Juventus and AC Milan were held to goalless draws, but luckless Udinese lost ground on them as a Stevan Jovetic penalty double proved decisive.

Jovetic cancelled out Antonio Di Natale's 14th-minute opener just before the break before scoring again from the spot late on after Mattia Cassani fired the hosts ahead on 56 minutes.

Gabriel Torje netted a late consolation for Udinese, who remain third but four points adrift of Juve at the top.

Udinese were worth their early lead as Pablo Armero pounced on an error from Riccardo Montolivo before feeding Di Natale to cleverly lob Artur Boruc.

The visitors dominated the opening period and Di Natale almost replicated the effort on 28 minutes, but this time Boruc just managed to turn his chipped effort over.

Fiorentina were gifted their equaliser on 39 minutes when Udinese defender Mehdi Benatia handled in the area and Jovetic netted the spot-kick down the middle.

It was hardly deserved but the hosts went into the break level, despite Boruc having to make another good stop to keep out Di Natale.

Udinese's frustrations were compounded 11 minutes after the restart as Fiorentina forged ahead. Manuel Pasqual crossed from the left for Cassani, who headed home from close range.

It got worse for Udinese as Di Natale was again denied by Boruc before Fiorentina won a second penalty with six minutes left.

Benatia was again at fault as he fouled Jovetic, who then made the game safe by firing the penalty into the bottom corner.

Udinese pulled a goal back three minutes later when Di Natale set up Torje to finished on the half-volley, but it came too late.