Serie A roundup: Kean and Fiorentina soaring, Atalanta dream of Scudetto
Moise Kean fired red-hot Fiorentina to third in Serie A, one point behind leaders Napoli, by scoring all three goals in Sunday's 3-1 win over Verona.
Italy forward Kean has scored 11 times in all competitions for Fiorentina since signing from Juventus in the summer, and his first professional hat-trick moved his new team up to 25 points following a sixth straight league win.
Kean put Fiorentina ahead in the fourth minute in Florence with a fine finish and, after Suat Serdar smashed home an 18th-minute leveller, acrobatically flicked home the second just before the hour.
The 24-year-old, who has been reborn in Tuscany after failing to score a single goal at Juve last season, then completed his treble in stoppage time when he collected a long pass from goalkeeper David de Gea and surged forward before rifling home.
"I can't deny that I wanted him when I was at Monza, I think he's a great striker," coach Raffaele Palladino told DAZN.
"He's gathering the fruits of his own hard work... It's also down to the team, everyone defended and attacked together today."
Atalanta's Scudetto 'dream'
Atalanta, 2-1 winners over Udinese, are second in the table, also just one point adrift of leaders Napoli.
Gian Piero Gasperini's Atalanta won their sixth straight league match after coming back from a goal down thanks to Mario Pasalic's leveller 11 minutes after half-time and an unfortunate own goal from Isaak Toure moments later.
Atalanta have won eight in an unbeaten run of 10 matches spanning all competitions and have deserved to be considered contenders for what would be their first ever Serie A title.
Under Gasperini and the guidance of the Percassi family, who are from Bergamo, Atalanta have slowly worked their way up from provincial also-rans to become one of Italy's top teams and last season's Europa League winners.
Buoyant supporters jokingly chanted "we're going to win the league" after watching their team battle back against Udinese who sit ninth on 16 points after their third straight defeat.
"You can't stop fans from dreaming... but the reality is that there's no point talking about the Scudetto now," said Gasperini.
"If we're still up there with seven or eight games to go then we'll start thinking about it but for now it's completely pointless."
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