Fiorentina 2-2 Atalanta: De Ketelaere scores one and sets up another in a share of the points

Charles De Ketelaere had a hand in both of Atalanta's goals at the Artemio Franchi, but it still was not enough to get his side out of Florence with the win. Fiorentina twice fought back, and the game ended 2-2.

De Ketelaere opened the scoring himself on 41', finished off a Nicola Zalewski pass. Fiorentina turned it around in eight second-half minutes, Alieu Njie heading in an Álex Jiménez cross on 53' before setting up João Mário for the lead on 61'. Atalanta would not go away, though, and De Ketelaere repaid Zalewski's earlier assist by teeing him up for the equaliser on 74'.

De Ketelaere's afternoon

It is rare for one player to be directly involved in both goals for the same side in a game decided by four, but De Ketelaere managed exactly that — scoring the first and assisting the last. In between, Fiorentina's own goal-of-the-afternoon moment belonged to Njie, who scored one and made the other inside the same eight-minute spell.

The match was close throughout statistically as well as on the scoreboard: Fiorentina edged possession 50.2% to 49.8%, and the two sides were separated by a single accurate pass out of nearly a thousand played between them.

Match facts

• 41' — Charles De Ketelaere (Atalanta), assisted by Nicola Zalewski
• 53' — Alieu Njie (Fiorentina), header, assisted by Álex Jiménez
• 61' — João Mário (Fiorentina), assisted by Alieu Njie
• 74' — Nicola Zalewski (Atalanta), assisted by Charles De Ketelaere

Line-ups

Fiorentina played a 4-3-3 with David de Gea in goal and Franco Mastantuono alongside Alieu Njie and Mateo Pellegrino in attack. Wilfried Gnonto, Pedro Gonçalves and Beto all came on in the second half.

Atalanta lined up 4-2-3-1, Nikola Krstovic leading the line with Charles De Ketelaere, Nicola Zalewski and Eljif Elmas in support. Giorgio Scalvini, Mario Pasalic and Jon Rowe were introduced from the bench as Atalanta chased a winner that never arrived.

Two sides still searching for consistency

Both clubs arrived in indifferent form. Fiorentina had lost three straight league games before this point, scoring eight and conceding ten across their last five, while Atalanta's own run read one win, one draw and three defeats in the same stretch. A share of the points at the Franchi does little to settle either side's season, though it is a point more than either picked up when these teams last took the field.

What it means for the table

Fiorentina stay 17th on 5 points, their goal difference improving to -10 but still deep in the relegation zone. Atalanta move to 12th on 11 points, goal difference -1 — mid-table, but short of where a club of their recent pedigree would expect to be nine games in.