Serie A: Florence Next for the Old Lady

Fiorentina vs Juventus

After a pre-season of renewed optimism Juventus have made a relatively quiet start to the 2022/23 Serie A campaign, taking five points from their opening three games.

These are early days, but head coach Max Allegri will be determined to impose his team on the rest of the Italian league as soon as possible having watched the two Milan clubs pick up the Scudetto in 2021 and 2022. And a trip away to Fiorentina on Saturday will provide a serious test for his title hopefuls.

Serie A: Fiorentina vs Juventus brings together two teams with European ambitions but Juve have pressure to, at least, make the Champions League, while La Viola will hope to improve on their seventh placed finish from last term… while thriving in the Europa League conference this season.

Both teams are on five points but are in midweek action. The Old Lady has a game at home to Spezia on Wednesday night, a match she should really win, while Fiorentina have a tricky clash away to Udinese. 

Talking Points

Steady start for Fiorentina

Head coach Vincenzo Italiano has done well with Fiorentina in his first 12 months in charge and he has strengthened in the summer with the signing of striker Luka Jovic from Real Madrid. And his team has done pretty much as well as expected in the opening weeks. They have successfully beaten FC Twente over two legs in the Europa League play-off while picking up a win and two draws in the league.

An opening day 3-2 win over Cremonese was followed by a goalless draw with Empoli and then a tough test against Napoli ended with the same outcome. La Viola gave as good as they got against Napoli, with a 48.5 per cent share of possession, ten shots to 13 and five to two on target; so they would not have been flattered by a win against the title hopefuls. Former Italy under 21 star Ricardo Sottil had a late effort well saved and striker Luka Jovic had a header tipped round the post. 

The hosts have plenty of experience in their ranks with midfield ace Giacomo Bonaventura pulling the strings while captain Cristiano Biraghi marshals the defence and in striker Jovic they have a hungry goal scorer who struggled in Madrid but is an obvious talent.

Can La Viola stop Vlahovic?

Fiorentina fans are never too cheerful about being called the ‘Juventus feeder club’ but they have seen some of their biggest stars leave to join the Old Lady, including attacking midfielder Juan Cuadrado who will captain I Bianconeri in Florence. Meanwhile, the player who switched to Turin in a big money move last January, Dusan Vlahovic, with three goals, has already gone to the head of the race for the Capocannoniere, alongside Inter Milan’s Lautaro Martinez and Napoli’s Khvicha Kvaratskhelia.

Juventus made a slow start to the 2021/22 campaign, and were in 16^th place with just a single point on the board at this stage, so to be eighth with five points (before the Wednesday night fixtures) is an improvement; though not as big as Juve fans had hoped.   

A thumping opening day win over Sassuolo as Vlahovic scored a brace, and a goalless draw away to Sampdoria were fair enough results; but Juve’s first big test came at home to Roma last week, and they had to settle for a 1-1 draw after Tammy Abraham equalised Vlahovic’s early opener. 

The pre-match Fiorentina vs Juventus betting odds are backing a Juventus win and if Vlahovic has a good day then it’s a near certainty. 

History

The head to head Fiorentina vs Juventus results won’t give the home fans too much encouragement as they have won just nine of their last 59 meetings with Juventus, losing 33 and drawing 17.

The two teams met three times late in the 2021/22 campaign. In April the Old Lady completed a Coppa Italia aggregate 3-0 win in Turin having taken a 1-0 lead away from Florence in the first leg. And La Viola exacted some revenge on the last day of the league season with a 2-0 home win which gave them European football while leaving Juventus with their lowest points total in 11 seasons.

Recent form should encourage the Fiorentina fans though. La Viola are unbeaten in five games at home and, at the time of writing, Juventus had won only one of the last six. 

Betting Tip

Fiorentina are at SBOTOP odds of 2.72 to win with the draw at 3.11 and Juventus the slight favourites at a price of 2.28.

The big question is; can Biraghi and co keep their former team-mate Vlahovic out of the game? It’s a big ask and he may only need one goal to upset his former fans. 

 

●●●

CHECK OUT OUR BLOG FOR MORE FOOTBALL STORIES & ODDS

Stay updated with everything sports and betting.

Follow us on social Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.