Como came to the Stadio Artemio Franchi and left with three goals, three points, and a performance that exposed every structural fragility Paolo Vanoli's Fiorentina have carried through this early season. The final score, Fiorentina 1-3 Como, was settled in essence before half-time, built on a seven-minute passage between the 32nd and 39th minutes that the hosts had no answer for.
The opening goal arrived at 32', when Como midfielder Mattia Liberali converted with Maxence Caqueret providing the assist. Four minutes later, Nico Paz doubled Como's lead, set up by Álex Valle — a lead-taking goal that made it 0-2 and effectively ended Fiorentina as an attacking proposition. Vanoli's side did find a response at 42', when defender Marin Pongračić pulled one back to make it 1-2, and for a moment the Franchi had reason to believe. That belief lasted precisely two minutes into added time: at 45+4', VAR cancelled Pongračić's goal, restoring Como's two-goal cushion and sending the teams into the interval at 0-2. The sequence — a goal given, then taken away — compressed the psychological damage into the worst possible moment.
Anastasios Douvikas, Como's forward, settled the contest at 56' with the third goal, assisted by Paz, and from that point the match was administration. Fiorentina made four substitutions between the 63rd and 69th minutes — Wilfried Gnonto, Valde, Marco Brescianini, and Dodô all introduced — but the deficit was beyond retrieval.
The key individual in Como's victory is Nico Paz. The midfielder contributed a goal and an assist, and his involvement in both the second and third goals gave Cesc Fàbregas's side a quality in transition that Fiorentina's midfield could not match. Paz was booked at 39' — a yellow card that arrived almost immediately after his goal — and was withdrawn at 61', but his imprint on the result was already complete. The combination of Liberali, Paz, and Caqueret in the middle third gave Como a creative density that looked several levels above what the home side could produce.
Fiorentina's evening was defined by two compounding problems: a defensive structure that conceded twice in seven minutes against a side playing with genuine rhythm, and the VAR cancellation of Pongračić's goal that denied them any psychological foothold at the break. The timing of that reversal — in the fourth minute of first-half stoppage time — removed what might have been a platform for a second-half recovery. Vanoli's side finished with two yellow cards and five substitutions, the latter suggesting a degree of tactical desperation in the second half that the scoreline ultimately confirmed was warranted.
The form picture for both clubs tells a clear story. Fiorentina came into this match having won just one of their last three Serie A fixtures, and this defeat leaves them with no wins and one draw across their last three matches in all competitions — one point from a possible nine. Como, by contrast, had won three of their last five before kick-off, and this result fits the pattern of a side that has been consistently competitive since the opening weeks of the campaign.
Fàbregas's Como are a team that know how to win away from home, and at the Franchi on Sunday they did it with a clinical economy that Fiorentina, still searching for defensive coherence, could not begin to replicate.