Fiorentina Look For Third Consecutive VictoryAfter a brief period of poor form, which saw them slip from third place to fifth, Fiorentina now seem back on the right track again. Last week’s 2-1 win away to Parma, although lucky and not entirely deserved, was vital in order to keep up with Udinese, who are currently fourth and who also won away from home.
Currently, the fight for that coveted last Champions League spot seems confined to these two teams, although Milan might storm back up the table after recovering the three games they missed while in Japan for the Club World Cup.
Udinese are currently one point ahead of Fiorentina, and four behind Juventus. Still, a crucial match in the race for fourth place will be played this weekend in Udine, where the Bianconeri will face a resurgent Milan side high on the “Pato-mania”. That might give the Viola an opportunity to leapfrog Udinese in the table as they face underperforming Torino at home.
It must be said that coach Cesare Prandelli has been doing a brilliant job these last few years at Fiorentina. In his first season he led them to fourth place, but a series of controversies tied to “Calciopoli” eventually saw them lose their Champions League spot.
The following season, a heavy points penalisation didn’t prevent them qualifying for the Uefa Cup, in a year where they were expected to fight against relegation. Remarkably, they would have finished third behind Inter and Roma if they hadn’t gotten that points deduction.
If Prandelli manages to get his team into the Champions League again, it would be a great achievement and undoubtedly a number of big clubs will come knocking on Fiorentina’s door for him.
Torino Out To End Crisis
Walter Novellino’s Torino are arguably the biggest disappointment of this Serie A season. After buying a number of big-name players last summer, including Alvaro Recoba, David Di Michele, Eugenio Corini, Nicola Ventola, and Vincenzo Grella, they were expected to challenge for a Uefa Cup spot.
Instead, they have found themselves consistently on the lower part of the table since the start of the season, and are currently just three points above the relegation zone. They haven’t won a match since 27 October, and have won just twice overall.
Considering the team also have such talented attacking players as Alessandro Rosina, Sasa Bjelanovic and Roberto Stellone, these are very poor statistics. What’s even more strange is that the team has especially struggled to score goals, with the defence doing relatively well.
Perhaps the appointment of coach Walter Novellino, who came over from Sampdoria last summer, wasn’t a great idea as he is not known for having an attack-minded approach to the game.
At the moment, anything more than simple Serie A survival seems out of reach for this Torino side, who are 8 points behind a Uefa Cup spot. Last weekend’s 2-1 home defeat to Livorno was probably the low point of the season so far, as they were outplayed by their visitors and only scored a late consolation through midfielder Davide Bottone after Francesco Tavano's brace gave the Tuscan team a 2-0 lead.
Usually, at home they are known to perform quite well, as they proved in the recent game against Roma, who were quite lucky to come away with a 0-0 draw on 16 December. Another record Torino won’t be very proud of is that they are by far the team with the most draws, 11, so far this season.
Against Fiorentina, they will try to obtain their first away victory of the season, and also bounce back from a heavy defeat to Roma (4-0) in a midweek Coppa Italia clash, although it will be very difficult and looks highly unlikely.
FORM GUIDE
Fiorentina
16/01 (Coppa Italia): Fiorentina-Ascoli 2-0
13/01 (Serie A): Parma-Fiorentina 1-2
23/12 (Serie A): Fiorentina-Cagliari 5-1
16/12 (Serie A): Sampdoria-Fiorentina 2-2
11/12 (Coppa Italia): Ascoli-Fiorentina 1-1
Torino
16/01 (Coppa Italia): Roma-Torino 4-0
13/01 (Serie A): Torino-Livorno 1-2
23/12 (Serie A): Napoli-Torino 1-1
19/12 (Coppa Italia): Torino-Roma 3-1
16/12 (Serie A): Torino-Roma 0-0
TEAM NEWS
Inter
Prandelli has a full squad to choose from.
Possible formation (4-3-3): Frey; Ujfalusi, Kroldrup, Gamberini, Pasqual; Donadel, Liverani, Montolivo; Santana, Vieri, Mutu.
Torino
Matteo Rubin, Tommaso Vailatti, Nicola Ventola, Dominique Malonga, Alessandro Rosina are all out injured.
Possible formation (4-4-2): Sereni; Comotto, Natali, Dellafiore, Lanna; Lazetic, Grella, Corini, Barone; Di Michele, Bjelanovic.
PLAYERS TO WATCH
Adrian Mutu (Fiorentina)
After a somewhat dark period in his career, during which he was caught using cocaine at Chelsea, he has been having a renaissance ever since returning to Italy at Juventus. He initially made his name as a prolific striker with the likes of Verona and Parma, but his move to England proved unsuccessful in more ways than one.
Juve “resurrected” the player by bringing him back to Italy in 2005, and he scored 7 goals for the club under Fabio Capello. Following their relegation in 2006, he was snapped up by Fiorentina, where he formed a lethal attacking couple with Luca Toni, and after the Italian’s departure to Bayern, he has become the team’s new leader.
David Di Michele (Torino)
While at Udinese, this 31-year-old striker earned a call up to the Italian national team, but didn’t do particularly well. However, at club level he did very well in the 2004/05 season, helping the team to a Champions League spot with 15 goals. Halfway through the following season, he earned a move to Palermo, where he continued to do quite well, scoring 16 goals in a season and a half.
However, he hasn’t quite managed to find his place at Torino since joining last summer, having played only 7 matches and never scored. But due to the absences of Ventola and Rosina, he will probably get more chances to shine in this upcoming period.
PREDICTION
Fiorentina-Torino 2-0
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