Ahead of Serie A’s Christmas break, Fiorentina and Napoli played out an absolute cracker in Florence which produced six goals and plenty of drama. The pick of the bunch was Argentine forward Mauro Zarate’s 81st minute strike which put the Viola 3-2 ahead.
From a sublime Federico Bernardeschi assist, former Birmingham and West Ham striker Zarate deftly passed the ball into the net via a wonderful volley…
However, on 24 minutes, Napoli’s Lorenzo Insigne had scored quite a cracker of his own…
That fabulous Insigne strike was the first of the game, with a brace from Bernardeschi and Dries Mertens (with his eighth goal in three Serie A games!) making it 2-2.
However, there was still more drama to come in the game at the Artemio Franchi, with Mertens rather harshly judged to have been fouled in the Fioretina box in injury time.
Sub Manolo Gabbiadini held his nerve to stroke home the equalising goal to break Fiorentina hearts but crown a tremendously entertaining clash…
The result sees Napoli stay third, seven points behind leaders (and inevitable winners) Juventus, while Zarate and co. go ninth.