Fiorentina dismissed Pisa 3-0 at the Stadio Artemio Franchi in the Coppa Italia, and the margin was built on a simple structural advantage: Paolo Vanoli's side had the quality to score before half-time and the squad depth to finish the job after it.
Mateo Pellegrino, Fiorentina's centre-forward, broke the deadlock at 40', converting what had been a controlled but goalless first period into a platform the hosts would not surrender. Pellegrino started the match and finished it with the opener — a fact worth noting given that Fiorentina had arrived at this fixture having taken only three points from their previous three matches across all competitions, conceding seven in the process. A clean sheet and a first-half lead represented a different kind of evening entirely.
The second half was shaped by Vanoli's substitutions rather than by any Pisa response. Alieu Njie came on at 60', and within eleven minutes he had provided the assist for Wilfried Gnonto — Fiorentina's forward who had started the match — to double the lead at 71'. Gnonto had been a constant presence across the ninety minutes; his goal, set up by a player who had been on the pitch for barely a quarter of an hour, illustrated how effectively Fiorentina's squad rotated without losing attacking coherence. The third arrived deep into stoppage time: Pote, also introduced at 60', finished from an assist by Álex Jiménez — himself a 72nd-minute substitute — to complete the scoring at 90+2'. Three goals, and the final two both involved players who had entered from the bench.
Gnonto is the natural focal point here. The forward started, contributed throughout, and scored the goal that effectively ended Pisa as a competitive force in the tie. His goal at 71', with Fiorentina already leading and Pisa having made three substitutions at 59' in search of a foothold, arrived at precisely the moment when a second goal would be most deflating for the visitors. The assist from Njie — a player making an immediate impact on his introduction — only underlines how much depth Vanoli was able to call upon.
For Pisa, the evening exposed the gap between Serie B competition and a Coppa Italia assignment against a top-flight side. Paolo Bianco's team had arrived in reasonable form across their last five matches, but the step up in class was evident. Simone Canestrelli collected a yellow card at 52', and the triple substitution at 59' — Petagna, Moreo, and Angori all entering simultaneously — suggested Bianco recognised early in the second half that the game required a fundamental change of approach. It did not produce one. Pisa managed no goals and conceded three; their Coppa Italia campaign ends here.
Fiorentina's form picture shifts meaningfully with this result. Coming in, they had taken three points from their last three matches across all competitions; including this win, that window now reads six points from two wins and one defeat. A 3-0 clean sheet does not erase a difficult start to the Serie A season — losses to Roma, Frosinone, and Torino remain on the ledger — but it confirms that Vanoli's squad, when given a Coppa Italia platform, can produce a performance of genuine authority.
A month from now, what will remain about this match is not the scoreline but the mechanism: Fiorentina's substitutes scored once and assisted twice, turning a one-goal lead into a rout, and suggesting that the squad's depth may yet be the most important variable in their season.