Verona slipped to their third successive defeat as Fiorentina's 2-1 victory kept them clutching at the final straw of Serie-A salvation at the Bentegodi Stadium this afternoon.

Domenico Morfeo opened the scoring for the Viola in the 27th minute, and they managed to hold on to their slender advantage until their Brazilian wonderkid Adriano doubled their lead ten minutes from the end. Though if truth be told they never looked likely to surrender once they had edged ahead.

The arrival of Adriano has proved to be the catalyst in the turnaround in Fiorentina's form, though sadly for them their results haven't matched their marked improvement.

Malessani's 3-4-3 was always going to be like a red rag to a bull for a striker of Adriano's quality and the Verona coach was always going to struggle with his patched up side against his former club.

Verona haven't fully recovered from the bloody battlefield of their meeting with Inter just a fortnight ago. They went into that game missing four players and had been forced to make three substitutions by half-time.

Morefo has grown in stature since winning the playmaker role at Fiorentina, more than repaying the distinct lack of faith the club appear to have placed in him over recent seasons, and he seems determined to take his team down fighting, if he has to go down at all, and his opening goal was worthy of any goal of the month competition.

Malesani shuffled his pack at half-time, sending on Salvetti and Cassetti in place of Mazzola and Gilardino, swopping to a 3-5-2, forcing Bianchi to revert to a 4-4-2, but the changes were nothing more than superficial and despite a late consolation goal from Adrian Mutu, Verona never really threatened to take anything from this match.