Roma's Serie A title hopes could take a major dent this evening, with Mario Gomez's first-half goal handing Fiorentina a 1-0 half-time lead over Rudi Garcia's side at the Stadio Artemio Franchi.

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The home side could have gone in front after 14 minutes had been played when Gonzalo Rodriguez put the ball past an on-rushing Morgan De Sanctis, leaving Daniele De Rossi to get back in time to clear off the line.

It took 16 minutes for Roma to carve out an opening as Kevin Strootman latched on to Francesco Totti's cross, but the midfielder could only head wide of the target.

Fiorentina managed to grab the contest's opening goal, and it came with their first real chance when David Pizarro picked out Gomez, with the trusted striker lashing home into the bottom-right corner.

Adem Ljajic did his best to muster an equaliser on two separate occasions, only for Radja Nainggolan and De Rossi to skew headers wide without troubling Ciprian Tatarusanu, as the hosts went into the interval ahead.