There are matches that catch you off guard even before you process the final scoreline. Monday evening at the Bluenergy Stadium in Udine was one of those matches. Udinese, a side that had lost each of their previous three games across all competitions and had spent much of the 2025/26 Serie A season looking like a team unsure of what they actually wanted to be, dismantled Fiorentina with a performance so controlled and clinical that for long stretches of the second half the result never felt in any doubt. The final score Udinese 3, Fiorentina 0 was emphatic, entirely deserved, and the kind of result that changes the conversation around both clubs in a matter of 90 minutes.
Fiorentina came into this Round 27 fixture sitting 16th in the Serie A table with 24 points, a position that had their supporters increasingly anxious as the season headed into its final stretch. They had done good work earlier in the week in European competition, getting past Jagiellonia in the Conference League, but the league form had been a concern. In 53 all-time Serie A meetings between these two clubs, Fiorentina had won 28 to Udinese’s 14, with 11 draws, which gave the visitors a historical edge in head-to-head terms. None of that mattered on Monday night. Udinese were better in almost every area of the pitch from the tenth minute onwards, and Fiorentina — who finished the match with 64 percent possession yet failed to register a single shot on target — left Udine with absolutely nothing to show for their evening.
Nicolo Zaniolo, who has had an inconsistent season since joining Udinese on loan but has shown on several occasions the quality that once made him one of the most exciting young players in Italian football, was central to everything good Udinese produced in the opening stages. It was his delivery — a well-weighted corner from the right — that created the first goal on ten minutes. Christian Kabasele, the Belgian centre-back who does not score often but tends to make it count when he does, attacked the ball with real conviction and powered a header past Fiorentina goalkeeper David de Gea. Considering Kabasele was positioned between two defenders and had a small window of time and space to work with, it was a header of real quality. The Bluenergy Stadium, which had been buzzing with the expectation of a team desperate to end a three-game losing run, went to a completely different level of noise. Udinese were 1-0 up, and the manner of the goal had immediately lifted the home crowd’s confidence.
What happened over the next 35 minutes told you everything about how the evening was going to go. Fiorentina — who had been unbeaten in four matches before a heavy 4-2 Europa Conference League defeat to Jagiellonia Bialystok in their previous outing — struggled to find any rhythm. Their build-up was slow, their movement in the final third disconnected, and Udinese’s defensive structure was compact enough to ensure that every promising Fiorentina passing sequence ran into a wall of black-and-white jerseys. Marin Pongracic was booked for a trip in the 28th minute, and shortly after both Kingsley Ehizibue for Udinese and Fabiano Parisi for Fiorentina were shown yellow cards following a physical clash that briefly threatened to boil over. Referee Luca Pairetto calmed things down quickly, but the temperature of the match had risen in a way that only made Udinese’s composure on the ball more impressive by comparison.
At halftime Fiorentina’s coach made changes. Marco Brescianini and Pietro Comuzzo came on, and the tactical intention was clear — try to add some energy and directness to an attack that had looked blunt throughout the first half. For about fifteen minutes of the second half, Fiorentina did push higher and ask more questions of Udinese’s backline. De Gea, their veteran Spanish goalkeeper who has been one of the more reliable performers in their squad this season, had very little to do — which tells you about how the game was flowing — but at the other end Keinan Davis and Zaniolo were still looking for that second goal that would effectively close the match.
The second goal came from the penalty spot in the 63rd minute, and it came from Davis rather than Zaniolo. The penalty was awarded after a Fiorentina defender handled inside the area — Pairetto had no hesitation in pointing to the spot — and Davis stepped up and sent de Gea the wrong way with a confident, low strike to the right corner. Davis had been effective throughout the half, holding the ball up well and bringing Udinese’s wide players into the game through his clever movement and physicality. His penalty was his moment of the match, and the manner in which he converted it — calm, certain, no drama — reflected a striker who trusted himself entirely in that situation.
From 2-0 the contest was, for all practical purposes, over. Fiorentina made further changes as the evening wore on, bringing on Rolando Mandragora and Moise Kean in an attempt to salvage some pride from what was turning into a difficult night. Kean, who has had a mixed season for the Viola despite arriving with considerable expectations, barely touched the ball in meaningful positions. Mandragora had a shot that drifted inches wide late on, which drew a sharp intake of breath from the small pocket of travelling Fiorentina supporters — one of those moments where you realise a team is searching for any reason to feel better about the evening rather than genuinely threatening a comeback.
Luca Ranieri, who had come on as a substitute for Fiorentina, was booked in the 80th minute as frustrations began to show in the visiting camp, and the yellow card summed up an evening where Fiorentina simply couldn’t find their footing. The third goal arrived in the fourth minute of stoppage time, and it came from Adam Buksa — who had come on as a substitute to replace the goalscorer Davis earlier in the half. A pass from Lennon Miller, who had also come on from the bench, found Buksa in exactly the kind of position a striker dreams about, and he finished cleanly with his left foot from just inside the penalty area. Three goals, three completely different types of finish — a header from a set piece, a composed penalty, and a straightforward left-foot strike — and each one completely representative of how thoroughly Udinese controlled every phase of the match.
For those wanting to follow Serie A fixtures live as the season moves into its most consequential rounds, you can check live scores and watch football matches in real time right here — including all upcoming Udinese and Fiorentina fixtures as both clubs navigate their very different second-half-of-season situations.
The final match statistics are a remarkable read. Fiorentina had 64.8 percent of the ball for the entire 90 minutes. They took ten shot attempts. They earned two corner kicks to Udinese’s five. And yet they registered zero shots on target — not one — across the entire match, while Udinese’s goalkeeper Maduka Okoye was so uninvolved that he was never called into a meaningful save. That gap between possession and genuine threat is one of the most alarming statistics a football club can produce. Controlling the ball while creating nothing useful is a pattern that has cost Fiorentina points throughout this season, and Monday was the starkest possible illustration of it. The Nigerian international Okoye, meanwhile, recorded a clean sheet that was almost entirely stress-free, which is a remarkable thing to say about a goalkeeper in a Serie A fixture against a Fiorentina side that was pushing for an equaliser at various points.
Udinese’s xG for the match came in at 1.5, against Fiorentina’s 0.68 — another number that tells the same story. For a home side that had been struggling with inconsistency for much of the campaign, this was the kind of performance that coaches talk about when they try to explain what they’ve been working toward in training. Neatly taken corners, disciplined defensive positioning, clinical finishing when the chances came, and a collective intensity that never dropped even after going two goals ahead. The Gotti era at Udinese had its peaks and troughs, but Monday against Fiorentina was unquestionably one of its better nights, and the Bluenergy Stadium crowd sent the players off the pitch with a warmth that had been absent in recent weeks.
Udinese’s win moves them to 35 points in the Serie A standings, while Fiorentina remain stuck on 24 points in 16th place — a position that will require some serious improvement in form if they are to avoid spending the final weeks of the season genuinely worried about relegation. The reverse fixture back in December 2025 had gone 5-1 to Fiorentina at the Franchi, which made Monday’s result all the more extraordinary in context. A side that had won by four goals just a few months earlier came to Udine and was completely outclassed. Football, as it always finds a way to remind you, is full of results that defy easy explanation.
The official Serie A website has the full updated standings following Monday’s results, and if you follow the Italian top flight closely you’ll know that the middle and lower reaches of the table are tighter than they appear at first glance. Several clubs within a handful of points of each other, with fixtures running out, makes for exactly the kind of unpredictable finish to a season that keeps supporters watching every round with genuine attention.
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Match Details — Serie A 2025/26, Round 27, 2 March 2026, Bluenergy Stadium, Udine, Italy. Kick-off: 19:45 UTC. Final Score: Udinese 3–0 Fiorentina. Goalscorers: Christian Kabasele 10′ (assist: Nicolo Zaniolo), Keinan Davis 63′ pen, Adam Buksa 90+4′ (assist: Lennon Miller). Referee: Luca Pairetto. Match Stats: Possession — Udinese 35.2% / Fiorentina 64.8%. Shots on Goal — Udinese 7 / Fiorentina 0. Shot Attempts — Udinese 10 / Fiorentina 10. Corner Kicks — Udinese 5 / Fiorentina 2. Yellow Cards — Udinese 1 (Ehizibue) / Fiorentina 4 (Pongracic, Parisi, Ranieri + 1). Saves: Okoye 0 / de Gea 4. Head to Head (all time): Udinese 14 wins / Fiorentina 28 wins / 11 draws across 53 meetings.
Udinese Starting XI (3-5-1-1): Okoye; Bertola, Kabasele, Kristensen; Ehizibue, Ekkelenkamp, Karlström, Piotrowski, Zemura; Zaniolo; Davis.
Fiorentina Starting XI (4-1-4-1): De Gea; Fortini, Ranieri, Pongracic, Parisi; Fagioli; Harrison, Mandragora, Brescianini, Colpani; Kean.
