Hellas Verona will endeavour to keep their slim hopes of Europa League qualification alive when they travel to Fiorentina in Sunday's Serie A clash.
In contrast, Fiorentina are eight points above the dotted line after 31 matches and still have work to do to secure their safety in the Italian top flight.
Match preview
© Reuters
A mid-table clash between Fiorentina and Cagliari had all the makings of a mediocre affair with little at stake for both sides, and the fixture was one of the less surprising goalless stalemates of the season.
There were chances at both ends of the pitch but neither Fiorentina or Cagliari could make the breakthrough in the end, and the former have only one win to show from their five outings since the restart.
The result means that Fiorentina occupy 13th spot in the table with 35 points thus far, and La Viola have not cemented their status as a Serie A club just yet.
Indeed, Giuseppe Iachini's men have a margin of eight points separating them from the drop zone, and Fiorentina cannot move any higher up the table with a win courtesy of Parma's four-point lead over La Viola.
Fiorentina's recent home form suggests that the odds are stacked against them for the visit of Verona; Iachini's side are winless in six on familiar territory and have only triumphed once at home since the turn of the year, and even then they were made to work for a 1-0 victory against basement side SPAL.
© Reuters
Following on from a 2-0 defeat against relegation candidates Brescia last weekend, Hellas Verona fans would not have been expecting miracles from their side when Champions League-chasing Inter Milan paid a visit to the Stadio Marcantonio Bentegodi.
Despite the gulf in class, Ivan Juric's men gave the Serie A giants a terrific run for their money and managed to hold Inter to a 2-2 draw on Thursday evening, with Miguel Veloso the hero of the night for Verona following his 86th-minute equaliser.
Verona are now level on points with eighth-placed Sassuolo and six behind seventh-placed AC Milan, so the European dream is still well and truly alive for Gli Scaligeri with seven games left to play.
However, the outside European contenders have only managed to piece together three wins from their last 11 in the Italian top flight and must contend with an unrelenting fixture schedule for the next few weeks.
Juric's side still have Atalanta, Roma and Lazio left to play before the 2019-20 campaign concludes, and Verona are currently on a seven-game winless streak away from home in Serie A.
Nevertheless, Samuel Di Carmine's second-half strike was enough to give Verona a 1-0 victory over Fiorentina earlier in the campaign.
Fiorentina Serie A form: DDLLWL
Hellas Verona Serie A form: WLDWLD
Team News
© Reuters
Fiorentina will be without the services of Sassuolo loanee Alfred Duncan after the midfielder picked up his fifth booking of the season against Cagliari, but defender German Pezzella returns from a suspension of his own.
Erick Pulgar is therefore expected to come back into the fold, and while the highly-rated Federico Chiesa was hauled off at half-time last time out, the Italian should feature in the starting lineup again here.
Christian Kouame finally made his first appearance for La Viola off the bench following his injury-plagued season, and the 22-year-old's emergence should lead to healthy competition up top between himself, Patrick Cutrone and Dusan Vlahovic.
Verona have a plethora of injuries to contend with as Pawel Dawidowicz, Fabio Borini, Valentin Eysseric, Andrea Danzi and Salvatore Bocchetti are all not expected to feature.
Federico Dimarco's performance against Inter was particularly eventful - the 22-year-old bagged an assist, picked up a booking and scored an own goal before being hauled off in midweek.
Fiorentina possible starting lineup:
Dragowski; Milenkovic, Ceccherini, Pezzella; Lirola, Badelj, Pulgar, Dalbert; Chiesa, Cutrone, Ribery
Hellas Verona possible starting lineup:
Silvestri; Rrahmani, Gunter, Kumbulla; Faraoni, Veloso, Amrabat, Lazovic; Pessina; Di Carmine, Stepinski
We say: Fiorentina 1-1 Hellas Verona
While Fiorentina's home form is nothing to write home about, Verona's record on their travels also leaves a lot to be desired. As a result, we are expecting the two sides to play out their second draws in succession on Sunday.
Data Analysis
Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats up until an hour before kickoff, suggested the most likely outcome of this match was a Fiorentina win with a probability of 49.39%. A win for Hellas Verona had a probability of 25.77% and a draw had a probability of 24.8%.
The most likely scoreline for a Fiorentina win was 1-0 with a probability of 10.82%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 2-1 (9.49%) and 2-0 (8.71%). The likeliest Hellas Verona win was 0-1 (7.34%), while for a drawn scoreline it was 1-1 (11.8%). The actual scoreline of 1-1 was predicted with an 11.8% likelihood.
