Soccer-Vlahovic fires Fiorentina up to fifth after Bologna thriller

Fiorentina won their first away match in more than two months by beating Bologna 3-2 to climb above AS Roma into fifth in Serie A on Sunday, while Hellas Verona produced an extraordinary second-half comeback from three goals down to beat Venezia 4-3. La Viola clinched a hard-fought victory in the "Derby dell’Appennino" to end a four-match away losing run stretching back to Sept.

Fiorentina won their first away match in more than two months by beating Bologna 3-2 to climb above AS Roma into fifth in Serie A on Sunday, while Hellas Verona produced an extraordinary second-half comeback from three goals down to beat Venezia 4-3.

La Viola clinched a hard-fought victory in the "Derby dell’Appennino" to end a four-match away losing run stretching back to Sept. 26 and move three points clear of Bologna in eighth. "Now that we are fifth, we want to stay here. There are three more games to go before we are at the halfway point of the season, and we will get as many points as possible and see where we are," Fiorentina coach Vincenzo Italiano told DAZN.

Youssef Maleh scored his first Viola goal to put the visitors ahead after 33 minutes, but Musa Barrow drew Bologna level before the break. Cristiano Biraghi restored Fiorentina’s lead with a curling free kick before Dusan Vlahovic converted a penalty to increase their lead, but Scottish defender Aaron Hickey came off the bench to pull one back for the hosts with seven minutes left.

Striker Vlahovic, 21, became only the fourth player to score at least 30 goals in a calendar year in Serie A before turning 22, and the first since Inter Milan’s Antonio Angelillo in 1958. In Venice, Verona went in 3-0 down at the break following goals from Pietro Ceccaroni, Domen Crnigoj and Thomas Henry, but launched an improbable recovery.

Henry scored an own goal before Ceccaroni was sent off for saving a shot off his line with his hand, and Gianluca Caprari scored the resulting penalty. Striker Giovanni Simeone completed the turnaround, equalising two minutes later before firing in a wonderful winner from the edge of the area with five minutes remaining.

The result lifted Verona to ninth with 23 points, leaving Venezia 16th with 15 points. Midtable Sassuolo also produced a comeback away from home in a 2-2 draw with 17th-placed Spezia, as a Giacomo Raspadori double cancelled out Rey Manaj and Emmanuel Gyasi efforts.

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