Fiorentina and Pisa lose on grim night for clubs fighting Serie A relegation

Pisa, March 3: Fiorentina went down to Udinese 3-0 and Pisa lost to Bologna 1-0 on an unhappy night for the relegation-threatened sides in Serie A.
In Udine, the home side went ahead after 10 minutes when Christian Kabasele nodded in a Nicolo Zaniolo corner.
Udinese’s leading goal-scorer Kelman Davis made it 2-0 from the penalty spot in the second half.
And Adam Buksa added a third in stoppage time to decisively halt Fiorentina’s recent revival and torpedo its hopes of winning three games in a row for the first time this season.
It remained fifth from bottom of the league, but equal on points with Cremonese and Lecce, the club occupying the third relegation spot.
One of the two teams below it, Pisa, lost at home to Bologna and remained joint last with Verona.
Pisa had three shots on target while Bologna had only one, but it was that 90th-minute strike from Jens Odgaard that decided the match.
The Danish forward hit the net from around 25 meters out to break the home fans’ hearts and ensure Pisa was still looking for a second win in the league.
The result leaves it on the same points as bottom club Verona. Both are nine points from safety with 11 league matches remaining.
The win was Bologna’s third in a row and lifted it above Sassuolo into ninth place. It has not lost a league game at home to Pisa since February 1985.
With the season entering its decisive phase, the night served as a grim reminder of the unforgiving nature of Serie A’s relegation battle.
For Fiorentina, any optimism sparked by recent improvement was swiftly extinguished in Udine, where defensive lapses and missed opportunities proved costly. Level on points with fellow strugglers and hovering just above the drop zone, the margin for error has all but disappeared. Pisa’s plight appears even more precarious.
Undone by a solitary moment of brilliance deep into stoppage time, they remain rooted to the foot of the table, nine points adrift of safety with only 11 matches left to salvage their campaign.
As Bologna surge upward with growing confidence, the gulf in momentum between the sides was stark.
For those trapped near the bottom, belief must now replace frustration, and resilience must override anxiety.
The coming weeks will demand nerve, discipline and perhaps a touch of fortune. Because in a relegation scrap where every point feels like survival itself, hesitation can be fatal — and redemption, if it comes at all, will have to be earned the hard way. (AP)