Staff Reporter.
Dusan Vlahovic scored twice as Fiorentina ended AC Milan’s unbeaten start to the Serie A season with an entertaining 4-3 victory in Florence.
Fiorentina opened a 3-0 lead before a quickfire Zlatan Ibrahimovic double saw Milan threaten to mount a comeback.
Alfred Duncan tapped in an opener and Riccardo Saponara curled in a superb second from distance before half-time.
Vlahovic grabbed his first on the hour, rounding Ciprian Tatarusanu to finish, and scored Fiorentina’s fourth late on.
The highly-rated 21-year-old fired in from 20 yards to put the game beyond Milan, despite Lorenzo Venuti’s 96th-minute own goal.
It was Serbia forward Vlahovic’s 27th Serie A goal in 2021, the most in a calendar year for any Fiorentina player in the league since 1960.
Ibrahimovic, meanwhile, becomes the oldest player to score at least two goals in a Serie A game and the first 40-year-old player to net a double in Europe’s big-five leagues in the 2000s.
Milan sit second, level on points with Napoli having played a game more.
“We must feel the pain of this defeat, but I remain convinced that I have a very strong team,” Milan coach Stefano Pioli told Sky Italia.
“Losing always hurts, as does conceding four goals. Maybe we could have made a comeback without the fourth goal.”
The result lifts Fiorentina into sixth with 21 points and leaves Milan second with 32 points.
“This victory means a lot for our self-esteem, we have never won a big game until now. We made some mistakes, but we did well to see it out,” Fiorentina captain Cristiano Biraghi told DAZN.
The Rossoneri, alongside Napoli, set a ferocious pace at the top of the table in the opening 12 rounds, picking up 32 points from a possible 36.