For twenty-two minutes the Stadio Pier Luigi Penzo dared to dream. Akor Adams had given Venezia the lead, the home crowd was up on its feet, and a season searching for its first point suddenly had shape and hope. Then Franco Mastantuono happened, and the evening turned inside out.

By the time the young forward had completed his hat-trick, Fiorentina had turned a one-goal deficit into a 4-1 rout, running out 4-2 winners in the end but never remotely troubled. Venezia's late consolation flattered a night of quiet devastation. This was a result that hardened the divide at the wrong end of the table — one side climbing gingerly off the floor, the other still lying on it.

It was the kind of match that will haunt Venezia not for its final margin but for how quickly it slipped away. One moment they were the better team, sharp on the break and full of running. The next they were chasing shadows, undone by a player who could not stop scoring.

A minute that changed everything

Adams had set the tone on 22 minutes, seizing on Gianluca Busio's pass after a fast break and lashing a right-footed shot from the right side of the box into the top-left corner. It was a goal of real quality, the reward for a counter-attack executed at pace, and it briefly promised that this might be Venezia's night.

Instead it lit a fuse under Fiorentina. On 29 minutes Mastantuono collected possession from Álex Jiménez and struck from outside the box, his left foot curling the ball into the bottom-right corner. The equaliser was barely done being celebrated when he did it again. Sixty seconds later, fed by Beto, he drove another left-footed effort from distance into the bottom-left corner.

Two goals in the space of a single minute. Venezia went from leading to trailing before they had time to reorganise, before the noise from Adams's opener had even faded. It was a swing so sudden and so brutal that it seemed to drain the belief from the home side entirely, and the interval could not come soon enough.

No way back

Whatever was said at half-time, Venezia emerged with the same fragility that had cost them so dearly. On 66 minutes Fiorentina cut them open once more on the break, Nicolò Fagioli threading the ball to Mateo Pellegrino, who finished coolly from the centre of the box with his left foot into the bottom-right corner. Three-one, and the contest was effectively over.

Fiorentina were now playing with the freedom of a side that had exorcised its own demons. After a wretched start to their campaign, they carried themselves like a team rediscovering how to win, moving the ball with confidence and punishing every lapse. Venezia, by contrast, looked like a team weighed down by four straight defeats, their heads dropping with each concession.

The fourth arrived on 84 minutes and it belonged, fittingly, to Mastantuono. This time there was no long-range flourish, just a header from very close range steered into the bottom-right corner to complete his hat-trick. Three goals from a night's work, each struck differently, each a dagger. It was the performance of a forward announcing himself in the biggest way.

A consolation, and cold comfort

Venezia did at least find a second, and it came almost immediately. Two minutes after Mastantuono's header, Antoine Hainaut turned in Ridgeciano Haps's cross from the right side of the box, his right-footed finish nestling in the bottom-right corner. It made the scoreline 4-2 and offered the home crowd a fleeting moment to cheer.

But it changed nothing of substance. The goal was a footnote to a match already decided, a flicker of defiance in a night defined by defensive collapse. Venezia have now shipped eleven goals in four matches, and their inability to protect a lead — even a hard-earned one built on a fine counter — will trouble them more than any single result.

For all the effort of Adams and Hainaut, the story here was one of a side that cannot stop conceding at the critical moments. When you take the lead against opponents this vulnerable and lose by two, the problems run deeper than any one afternoon.

The table hardens

The consequences are stark. Venezia remain 20th and pointless, four games played and four games lost, their goal difference now a chastening minus seven. At the bottom of Serie A there is no cushion and no time for patience; every week that passes without a point tightens the noose. This was a night that had a win in it, and that will sting most of all.

Fiorentina, meanwhile, breathe. Victory lifts them to 15th on three points, their first win of the campaign arriving after three defeats had threatened to make this a season of firefighting. They too had leaked goals — eleven conceded across their opening matches — but for once their attack overwhelmed everything, and a young forward's brilliance papered over the cracks.

The gap between the two clubs is only three points, but it feels larger tonight. One side leaves with momentum and a hat-trick hero to build around; the other leaves with the same questions it arrived with, only louder. Venezia must find answers quickly, before the foot of the table becomes a permanent address. Fiorentina, at last, can look upward rather than over their shoulder.