Serie A | Fiorentina 1-0 Pisa: Kean lifts Viola out of relegation zone

Moise Kean registered his third Serie A goal in as many games to lift Fiorentina out of the relegation zone with a 1-0 victory over local rivals Pisa on Monday evening. 

Fiorentina made several alterations to their starting line-up following Thursday evening’s 3-0 victory over Jagiellonia in the Conference League play-off round first leg, with Kean, Manor Solomon, Nicolo Fagioli and Marco Brescianini among the players to return to the Viola XI. Pisa made just two changes following their 2-1 defeat against Milan last weekend, with Samuel Iling-Junior and Marius Marin coming into the XI in place of Matteo Tramoni and Michel Aebischer. 

Click here to read more about how today’s teams lined up.

Fiorentina were the better of the Tuscan teams across the first half in Florence, and needed less than 13 minutes to find the lead against their local rivals: Kean couldn’t have asked for a simpler chance. 

Jack Harrison’s cross in from the right flank was headed clear by Rosen Bozhinov, but only as far as Cher Ndour on the follow-up. Simone Canestrelli made a mess of his attempted clearance of Ndour’s shot and inadvertently sent it into the path of Kean, who was unmarked less than 10 yards out from goal. 

Fagioli and Dodo tried to test goalkeeper Nicolas with a pair of shots from the edge of the area midway through the first half, but they were unable to find the target through a congested penalty area. 

Kean tried to find the back of the net with a header a few minutes before the interval, but got too far underneath Brescianini’s ball in from the left and saw his effort go over the crossbar for a goal-kick. 

Fagioli tested Nicolas from a free-kick from just over 25 yards out a few minutes after the break, but this was nothing that the Brazilian stopper wasn’t able to handle. 

Ndour saved his best attempt of the game for the 87th minute, rifling an effort towards the top corner of the net from the edge of the area, but Nicolas got a strong wrist behind it and sent it behind for a corner. 

Pisa were unable to register a shot on target across the 90 minutes. 

This result lifts Fiorentina out of the relegation zone and into 16th place, but are not entirely clear of danger just yet given that they are still level on points with Cremonese (17th) and Lecce (18th). 

Pisa remain stuck in 19th, on the same tally of points as Hellas Verona (20th). They remain nine points off safety after 26 matches. 

Fiorentina 1-0 Pisa 

Kean 13’.