Emanuele Giaccherini puts another blow to Fiorentina’s Serie A aspirations

Former Sunderland striker Emanuele Giaccherini dented 10-man Fiorentina's Serie A title hopes in a 1-1 draw with Bologna, as Genoa's relegation fight was kept in check by a scoreless draw with Lazio.

Fiorentina, whose last scudetto came in 1969, were firmly among the title contenders in Italy's top flight before the festive break following a spectacular start to the season.

But a series of patchy results since then have seen Paulo Sousa’s men lose some of their early season punch.

Saturday’s draw means Fiorentina have now won just three of their past seven games in 2016.

Read more: Ian Hawkey on how Inter Milan went from favourites to famished in Serie A

Although Fiorentina remain third they could be 10 points behind leaders Napoli, who host struggling Carpi, by Sunday afternoon and drop to fourth if Inter Milan win at Verona.

But Fiorentina goalkeeper Ciprian Tatarusanu believes the team have what it takes to battle for a third-place finish to secure a qualifying spot for the Uefa hampions League.

“We have a great squad and we still have a lot of games to play so we have a good chance of finishing third,” Tatarusanu said.

“When it becomes difficult for us that’s when we start to show our true character, but today was difficult especially after we went down to 10 men.”

Sousa, who was sitting out a one-game touchline ban, left his top scorers Nikola Kalinic and Josip Ilicic on the bench for the short visit north and it took the visitors over half an hour to muster a shot on goal.

Former Barcelona winger Cristian Tello did well to break away on the left but Angelo Da Costa parried his angled shot from close range.

Soon after, Senegal striker Khouma Babacar ballooned over from eight yards with the goal at his mercy.

Sousa replaced Babacar with Kalinic at the interval but Fiorentina’s hopes of taking all three points suffered a blow when Matias Fernandez, who had been cautioned after just three minutes, saw red for a needless shove from behind on Domenico Maietta 12 minutes after the restart.

Fiorentina broke the deadlock only two minutes later, Federico Bernardeschi pouncing on Tello’s low drive across the area to beat Da Costa first-time from 12 yards to claim his first goal in Serie A.

But Bologna struck back almost immediately with a similar effort, Giaccherini driving his first-timer from Godfred Donsah’s superb delivery inside the area past Tatarusanu.

“We tried to snatch the win at the end ... but it’s still a precious point for us against a great team such as Fiorentina,” Giaccherini said.

“We did really well to level just after they scored but couldn’t capitalise when they went a man down.”

Genoa welcomed Lazio to the Luigi Ferraris stadium looking to end a three-game winless streak that has left them hovering dangerously above the relegation zone.

But despite Lazio missing several key players including suspended striker Alessandro Matri, Antonio Candreva, Lucas Biglia, Stefan Radu and Stefan de Vrij, Gianpiero Gasperini’s men failed to capitalise.

Genoa remain 16th, six points clear of the drop zone, with Lazio, who have now failed to score in their last three league outings, stuck in ninth 20 points behind Napoli.

“The fact we haven’t scored in three games is bizarre for us, given the goalscoring qualities we have,” said Lazio coach Stefano Pioli.

“Right now, we’re struggling to produce a winning game but tonight we should have come away with all three points for what we put into the game.”

The remaining fixtures will be played Sunday when champions Juventus, two points behind Napoli, go to strugglers Frosinone.

A win for Inter Milan away to basement side Verona, who claimed their first win of the season last week, would see Roberto Mancini’s men move up to third to take a one-point lead on Fiorentina.

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