High-flying Fiorentina welcome a Hellas Verona side full of confidence after an impressive win last week to the Stadio Artemio Franchi in Serie A on Sunday.
In a congested top six, Fiorentina are the surprise entry to the title race so far, going under the radar slightly with new manager Raffaele Palladino.
Match preview
© Imago
Five straight wins in Serie A for La Viola is their best run of form in almost seven years, and with Napoli's resurgence and Atalanta's eye-catching win over the Partenopei last week, not many are taking notice of Fiorentina's excellent start.
Only four points separate the entire top six in Serie A, and Fiorentina are just three points off Antonio Conte's side at the summit.
The hosts now return to the Artemio Franchi for the first time since the 5-1 thrashing of Roma following three straight games on the road, which yielded narrow wins away to Genoa and Torino.
However, with a heavily-rotated side, Palladino's men fell to a surprise defeat in Cyprus to APOEL Nicosia in the Conference League on Thursday, ending their seven-game winning run across all competitions, having already beaten TNS and St Gallen in their opening two on the continent.
That should not discourage them too much, with so many first-team players rested, as the entire defence is set to revert back to the one that, after successfully shutting out Torino, has kept four straight clean sheets away from home in Serie A for just the third time in their history.
Keeping another on home soil here could be historic too, because after winning their last two home games against Verona with clean sheets to go with it, they could win three in a row without conceding against their upcoming opponents for the first time in their history.
© Imago
La Viola have the upper hand in this fixture by some distance, but even though Verona have only won 15 of the 66 Serie A meetings between the clubs, that is the most victories they have recorded against a single opponent in the top flight.
A 2-1 win in May was the most recent, and that ended an eight-game winless run for Verona in this fixture.
The squad should also be brimming with confidence after a dramatic 3-2 win over Roma last weekend lifted them away from trouble for the time being.
Consistency is not a common theme under Paolo Zanetti, though, as this Gialloblu side are often very good or very bad, considering the Roma win came on the back of three straight defeats, including two against relegation candidates Monza and Lecce, and a 6-1 thumping at Atalanta.
For the neutral though, Verona are up there with Atalanta as the league's great entertainers, with 40 goals having been scored in their 11 games so far.
Team News
© Imago
Fiorentina will be without Danilo Cataldi and Icelandic international Albert Gudmundsson for this one, but should have a fresh complement of players following the midweek rotation.
Palladino made 10 changes against APOEL, and all those who featured against Torino should return, including Moise Kean, who was left at home in midweek.
Kean has been involved in nine goals so far this season, with eight goals and one assist, and that is already his best return with an Italian club in a single campaign, beating his tally of eight in 40 matches with Juventus in 2022-23.
Ill-discipline has been prevalent for Verona in recent weeks, with three red cards in their last two games, and while Jackson Tchatchoua and Reda Belahyane will return here, a late dismissal for Dailon Livramento last week means he will be suspended.
Zanetti shuffled the pack for the game with Roma after losing to Lecce, and it worked a treat, so the Verona boss could stick with the same side that were victorious last weekend.
On the injury front, Pawel Dawidowicz, Juan Manuel Cruz and Martin Frese are among the players currently sidelined for the visitors.
Fiorentina possible starting lineup:
De Gea; Dodo, Comuzzo, Ranieri, Gosens; Richardson, Bove; Colpani, Beltran, Sottil; Kean
Hellas Verona possible starting lineup:
Montipo; Daniliuc, Coppola, Magnani, Bradaric; Duda, Serdar; Suslov, Kastanov, Lazovic; Tengstedt
We say: Fiorentina 3-1 Hellas Verona
While last week's win was important, Zanetti will know that his Verona side are still too close for comfort to the bottom three, and away form this season suggests this will be a difficult assignment.
Only Venezia and Lecce have fewer points than Verona on the road, while Fiorentina have won five in a row in Serie A and are unbeaten on home soil this season.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
Andrew Delaney
