On Sunday afternoon, Genoa travel to the Stadio Artemio Franchi to meet Fiorentina in the second weekend of the 2014/2015 Serie A season.
All eyes will be on the Viola who will be looking to bounce back after an opening day loss to Roma and restate their Champions League credentials. Genoa themselves, suffered a loss at the hands of Napoli. However, a last-minute winner by Jonathan De Guzman did not take away from a positive display by Il Grifone.
For every good there seems to be evil at Fiorentina. Retaining the services of Juan Cuadrado was seen as a massive coup, but an injury to striker Giuseppe Rossi is a cruel setback for Fiorentina with the player set to be out for around five months with another knee injury.
Matches between these two sides are traditionally high-scoring, with 18 goals scored between them over their last three meetings. We need to go back 10 fixtures to find the last time that Genoa beat the Viola. Over that time period, Fiorentina have won six of the nine fixtures, scoring eight goals against them last season. Genoa are notoriously shaky away from home and have failed to win any of there last seven away matches.
Despite starting as heavy favourites, Fiorentina coach Vincenzo Montella will be called to make several bold decisions to deal with the wide threat offered by the Grifone. It has been suggested that shifting of Josip Ilicic to a trequartista-like would be a short terms solution to counteract the loss of Rossi.
Fiorentina will be boosted by the addition of the talismanic Cuadrado who served his suspension during the match with Roma.
Genoa will have an almost-full squad to choose from with the only absentee being the injured Ioannis Fetfatzidis. Despite the availability of Nicolas Burdisso, Facundo Roncaglia is expected to start as one of three Genoa centre-backs. Fiorentina new-boy Micah Richards may get his Serie A debut after his late move from Manchester City.
Expected Starting XIs
Fiorentina – Neto, Pasqual, Savic, Rodriguez, Tomovic, Vargaz, Pizarro, Valero, Ilicic, Gomez, Cuadrado
Genoa – Perin, Marchese, Maio, Roncaglia, Antonelli, Rincon, Sturaro, Edenilson, Kucka, Pinilla, Perotti
