Inter dropped more points at Fiorentina but young striker showed yet again that he can step up and deliver for club and country
I
s Francesco Pio Esposito immune to The Fear? Even as Inter threw away another two points on Sunday night, drawing 1-1 at Fiorentina and giving fresh encouragement to their rivals in a title race that was supposed to have been done and dusted by the end of February, their 20-year-old striker remained untouched by it.
He opened the scoring inside the first minute at the Stadio Artemio Franchi, rewarding Nicolò Barella’s cross with a firm header past David De Gea. When the ball reached him again in the dying seconds of injury time, Esposito once again met the occasion, keeping his feet as Luca Ranieri grabbed at him with both hands, and turning brilliantly to fire towards the bottom corner. This time, however, the goalkeeper was equal to it.
It had taken Fiorentina until the 77th minute to equalise, Cher Ndour forcing the ball home after Yann Sommer pushed an Albert Gudmundsson shot out into his path. But that spoke more to their own profligacy than Inter’s defending. The Viola ought to have been level before half-time, Gudmundsson glancing a header wide when unmarked and Moise Kean arriving a fraction too late to slide another cross into an open net.
