Fiorentina Vs Inter Milan [1–1] – Serie A 2025/2026: I Nerazzurri’s Lack Of Control – Tactical Analysis

Fiorentina hosted Inter Milan at Stadio Artemio Franchi for Gameweek 30 in Serie A in a very entertaining and competitive match that saw both teams battle until the end for the three points.

Inter Milan failed to protect their early lead, as they were not good enough at maintaining possession and adding a second goal, while conceding a lot of play and attacks from Fiorentina, ultimately leading to the equalising goal.

This was not the first time Inter Milan put on a disappointing overall performance and got a negative result, as the team has been failing to perform at their best in recent matches.

I Nerazzurri offered gifts to their direct opponents in the standings; these gifts were not well exploited by those opponents.

AC Milan and Napoli are getting much closer to Inter Milan, as both have won their games while Inter Milan equalised, narrowing the gap between them and Milan to only six points.

With the team left with complicated games like AS Roma, Como away, Lazio away, and Bologna away, it will be imperative for them to get back to winning ways; otherwise, the risk of losing the first spot will become much higher.

For Fiorentina, it counts for the team that they did not give up and continued attacking and causing issues to Inter Milan’s defence until they were able to equalise, knowing that they are currently down in 16th place.

This spot does not guarantee escape from relegation, but it at least gives the team a bit of a breather and allows them to focus on getting more points in the upcoming fixtures to fully secure their position in Serie A.

In this tactical analysis, we focus mainly on Fiorentina’s reaction to Inter Milan’s early goal and what they did to break Inter Milan’s defence.

Fiorentina Vs Inter Milan Lineups & Formations

Paolo Vanoli opted for a 4-3-3 formation, with David de Gea as the goalkeeper, a defensive line of Dodô as a right-back, Marin Pongračić and Luca Ranieri as centre-backs, and Robin Gosens as a left-back.

The midfield consisted of Nicolò Fagioli as a defensive midfielder, with both Marco Brescianini and Cher Ndour as central midfielders.

In attack, Albert Guðmundsson and Fabiano Parisi were the two wingers, supporting the main striker, Moise Kean.

On the other hand, Cristian Chivu lined his team up in their usual 3-5-2 formation, with Yann Sommer occupying his usual spot in goal behind the centre-backs Yann Aurel Bisseck, Manuel Akanji, and Carlos Augusto.

Denzel Dumfries and Federico Dimarco started as the two wing-backs, while the midfield was made up of Nicolò Barella, Hakan Çalhanoğlu, and Piotr Zieliński.

And in attack, Francesco Pio Esposito and Marcus Thuram started as the two strikers.

Fiorentina Numerical Superiority Inside The Box & The Solutions That Helped Fiorentina Equalise

Inter Milan surprised Fiorentina with a very quick first goal, making things complicated for them from the start.

It was during Inter Milan’s first attempts that the team won a throw-in, which was executed towards Esposito, but Fiorentina’s defenders were first on the ball.

Fiorentina Poor Defending Inside The Box

However, Fiorentina’s defender failed to clear the ball away successfully or pass it to one of his teammates, providing a suitable opportunity for Barella to cross from the right wing.

This was a poor defensive error by Fiorentina, as it led to a dangerous cross from the wing, even though the defender had the option to clear the ball more safely rather than give it away to Barella.

Barella’s cross was well-received by Esposito who read the cross’ trajectory well enough to jump at the right time and finish with a powerful and accurate header towards the net, benefiting from Fiorentina defenders’ poor man-marking inside the box in this action.

Leaving a striker like Esposito unmarked in the box while knowing a cross was coming from the wing was a decisive error by Fiorentina, who had to defend much better and mark Esposito more tightly.

Esposito’s marker left him at his back and did not even try to jump to intercept the cross or disturb Esposito, making things easier for the Italian striker.

Even following the conceded goal, Fiorentina’s defenders continued committing concentration errors and mistakes that could have resulted in conceding a second goal soon after conceding the first one.

In fact, just a few minutes following that goal, Fiorentina conceded three crosses and were unable to have the advantage on those crosses, with Inter Milan’s players winning the box in that dangerous zone, something that confirms Fiorentina’s struggle in defending against Inter Milan’s accurate crosses.

What made their defence against these crosses more complicated was the dynamism and anticipatory movements not only of Thuram and Esposito but also of Barella, who often joined the box and tried to exploit Fiorentina’s defensive weaknesses along with his attacking teammates.

Fiorentina Attacking Reaction & Moise Kean Solutions

Fiorentina progressively gained more possession but were unable to surprise Inter Milan with quick attacks, as their build-up was usually very slow.

Furthermore, they were unable to serve Kean inside the box, which led to him retreating more often to get the ball and, in turn, losing his dangerous abilities inside the box.

Kean was only able to shoot from distance when he retreated outside the box to receive the ball, as this was his only way of getting involved in the attacks and trying to threaten Inter Milan’s defence.

As the match progressed, Fiorentina found solutions thanks to Kean’s off-ball movement and Fagioli’s long passes behind Inter Milan’s defenders, as these were among the solutions that disturbed Inter Milan, given Kean’s physical strength, his ability to accelerate quickly, and his ability to protect the ball.

Kean came very close to scoring in the following situation, but failed to do so, mainly because he was pushed a little and most likely tried to win a penalty after that touch as well.

That said, the idea of Fagioli and the anticipatory movement of Kean were positive signs for finding ways to disturb Inter Milan’s defensive line.

Fiorentina Crossing & Penetrations Solutions

Fiorentina tried to diversify their attacking solutions even further, and we saw them occupying the box with more numbers as the match progressed, in an attempt to gain numerical superiority inside the box when receiving crosses, or at least to escape marking in that area.

Fiorentina succeeded in interpreting this plan well enough and got very close to equalising, mainly thanks to crosses from the right wing, with Gosens and Guðmundsson joining Kean inside the box and trying to distract Inter Milan’s defenders.

Guðmundsson in particular was able to exploit Akanji’s passive man-marking as soon as the cross was launched, as Guðmundsson made a few steps to get to the ball and Akanji remained distant from him.

This allowed Guðmundsson to touch the ball without disturbance, but he did not have the time to coordinate his body well enough in order to touch the ball with his head, and that’s what led to “shooting” it with his shoulder.

Intensifying similar crosses towards the box and advancing with numbers towards the box would have been a very dangerous approach against Inter Milan’s defence, as it did not look very confident in defending against such situations and could have easily made marking errors.

However, Fiorentina did not rely on this plan extensively, especially during the first part of the first half, and did so only occasionally, without clear intent to disturb Inter Milan with it.

On the other hand, Esposito’s movements at the back of Fiorentina’s defence and the key passes from Dimarco and Barella continued to create threats against Fiorentina’s defence.

Esposito came very close to scoring on several occasions in this match, but his finishing was not always accurate enough.

Fiorentina Intense Presence Inside The Box

Fiorentina noticed Inter Milan’s defensive vulnerability and became more dangerous in the second part of the first half, attacking in greater numbers in hopes of forcing Inter Milan into errors inside the box.

Fiorentina succeeded in threatening Inter Milan’s defence mainly thanks to attacks that start from the right wing to reach the box and then provide key passes towards the centre of the box with the hope of finding a player who finishes inside the net.

This type of action was recurrent in the first half, and Kean missed one of the most dangerous Fiorentina actions of the match from a similar situation.

The action saw both Parisi and Brescianini penetrate from the right side of the box, exploiting the advancing of five Fiorentina players to the penalty box before serving Kean accurately.

Unfortunately for Fiorentina, however, Kean was not able to time his sliding shot to touch the ball, despite being unmarked and in front of an empty net, since Sommer was positioned on the near post.

Moise Kean Role In Creating Dangerous Fiorentina Counterattacks

Fiorentina’s threats continued to be created not only through well-built attacks and right-wing reliance but also thanks to Kean’s ability to attract defenders, retreat towards his team’s own half, and win his duels against his direct markers.

His heavy physical presence and ability to get the ball, protect it against Akanji, then still have the strength to turn and accelerate with explosivity to get away from Akanji completely was remarkable.

His ball protection and turning action created a dangerous situation for Fiorentina, which was followed by an intelligent run into space by Ndour, who was quickly noticed and served by Kean.

Kean’s only mistake in this action was the way powerful through pass to the direction of Ndour, which helped Sommer intercept it before Ndour.

Other than that, the counterattacking action showcases Kean’s value as a stationary striker and as someone who can create dangerous counterattacks with a single action.

However, his key pass was also intelligent, but lacked a bit of accuracy.

Fiorentina’s High Recovery Makes The Difference

Following a few other dangerous opportunities from Fiorentina in the second half, mainly shots from distance by Fagioli and crosses that lacked accuracy towards Kean, Fiorentina were eventually able to equalise, mainly thanks to their intense, recurrent attacks on Inter Milan’s defence.

Fiorentina’s attacks obliged Inter Milan to commit errors, and this equalising goal action saw a very well-exploited high recovery by Fiorentina following a cross that Bisseck intercepted.

Fiorentina were active enough in trying to intercept the ball following Bisseck’s intervention, and Fagioli was successful in doing so as he was even more intelligent in switching play to the left side of the box very quickly in order to exploit Inter Milan’s lack of defensive organisation at that moment.

Fagioli’s key pass allowed Guðmundsson to find the time and space to go for a first-time shot.

Subsequently, Fiorentina’s attacking with numbers inside Inter Milan’s box paid off as Ndour was able to get first to the second ball coming from Sommer following his saving attempt, to score a very important goal for Fiorentina that rewards their recurrent attacking attempts and determination to penalise Inter Milan.

Conclusion

Fiorentina also had the chance to add the second goal thanks to Ndour and Guðmundsson’s recurrent dynamic penetrations inside the box, but what lacked was the final key pass to Kean.

Fiorentina did well enough in the second half to come back into the game and equalise. In contrast, Inter Milan’s attacking performance was worrying, especially a few minutes after scoring their first goal.

Inter Milan lacked the determination to add a second goal, and at the same time, they were not solid enough at the back to prevent Fiorentina from launching dangerous attacks.

In fact, the Nerazzurri are putting their first-place spot at risk following this lacklustre performance, giving additional hope to their rival, Milan, to keep exploiting this loss of points and get closer to battling Inter Milan for the title until the last fixture.