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One of the strangest goals of Adrian Mutu's career put Fiorentina on their way to this local derby victory.
The latest Tuscan derby had two rivals at opposite ends of the table. The Viola recovered from their pre-Christmas wobble with nine goals in three straight Serie A wins to go fourth and an unlucky 2-1 midweek Coppa Italia loss at Lazio. Empoli had Claudio Marchisio injured, but were unbeaten at the Castellani in five. They were led by former Fiorentina boss Alberto Malesani, but hadn't beaten Fiorentina here in Serie A since 1986. Christian Vieri and Fabio Liverani were out injured.
Empoli had a strong start with Lino Marzoratti's diving header turning Sebastian Giovinco's free kick just wide, then Sebastien Frey did well to parry an Andrea Raggi snapshot from the right channel.
Fiorentina also threatened, as Moro required a goalline clearance to deny Giampaolo Pazzini an opener. Pazzini also hit the back of the net, but it was disallowed for an offside position.
Frey palmed away a Nicola Pozzi left-foot strike and Marianini ballooned the loose ball over the bar.
Fiorentina had another goal disallowed for Pazzini, but it was an extremely tight offside decision.
Pazzini nodded a Mario Alberto Santana cross over the bar, at the other end Giovinco and Pozzi couldn't quite finish off the move.
Fiorentina had a third goal disallowed for offside, this time Tomas Ujfalusi's header and again it was pretty close.
Adrian Mutu really should have done better, his diving header off target, then skipped past two defenders only to fire well wide.
Frey did well to flap away a Marzoratti effort and Pozzi wanted a penalty for Dario Dainelli's challenge.
The deadlock was finally broken five minutes from time. Having had a dreadful game so far, Mutu scored almost by accident, as Marzoratti's attempted clearance ricocheted in off his face!
Pazzini also got his glory, running on to a splendid through ball from substitute Massimo Gobbi to place a cool finish past Bassi.
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