Fiorentina and Napoli lock horns for game 11 of the Serie A season on Sunday night at the Stadio Artemio Franchi.
The two sides are already separated by five points at this stage of the campaign. The away side are currently sitting in fifth position, while the home outfit are only just in the top of half of the table at 10th.
The form of the Viola has been indifferent in recent weeks. A fine 3-0 demolition of Udinese was swiftly followed up with a 3-1 loss away at Sampdoria. Worryingly, Fiorentina are yet to claim two consecutive wins this season, and a number of key players are not in the top form which coach Vincenzo Montella would have expected.
Conversely, after a terrible start to the season, Napoli have now gone seven Serie A games unbeaten. Four wins make up that tally, with draws against Palermo, Inter and Atalanta the only non-perfect blemishes on the domestic record of late. Coach Rafael Benitez will be hoping to utilise star duo Gonzalo Higuain and Jose Callejon, who have both been playing to an excellent standard recently.
The Partenopei have scored an impressive 19 times already this season, with a glut of those goals coming two weeks ago at home to Hellas Verona. Meanwhile, Fiorentina have just 10 goals to their name thus far, but can take a slight positive from their defensive record which reads three less goals than their opponents.
Fiorentina’s progress has again been hampered by the injury problems which firstly reared their heads last season. The struggles of attacking pair Giuseppe Rossi and Mario Gomez to stay fit has heaped pressure on the likes of Juan Cuadrado and Josip Ilicic to provide the goods for the Florence based side. However, after making a substitute appearance last weekend against Sampdoria, Gomez could well be in contention for a start after coming through the Europa League match against PAOK unscathed.
For Fiorentina, forwards Federico Bernardeschi and Rossi have both been ruled out until the start of 2015 at the very least.
Juan Zuniga, David Lopez and Michu are all out for Napoli, but more significantly midfield maestro Marek Hamsik has a fever and may face late tests to prove his fitness.
The last meeting between these two sides was of course in the 2014 Coppa Italia final, where a Lorenzo Insigne double snatched a win for Napoli in a game marred by pre-kickoff violence. In Serie A, it was actually Fiorentina who claimed the victory in the last meeting, where Joaquin’s strike was enough to seal all three points away at the Stadio San Paolo.
Despite Fiorentina’s lack of consistency regarding form, Napoli’s unbeaten streak may be coming up against its biggest barrier yet.
Expected Starting XIs
Fiorentina: Neto; Richards, Rodriguez, Savic, Alonso; Badelj, Pizarro, Valero; Cuadrado, Gomez, Ilicic
Napoli: Rafael; Maggio, Albiol, Koulibaly, Ghoulam; Jorginho, Inler; Callejon, Mertens, Insigne; Higuain
