Hellas Verona V Empoli – Preview: Gialloblu Crave Win To Celebrate Past Glory At Home To Azzurri

Date: 15th May 2015 at 3:30pm
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Hellas Verona will want to celebrate the club’s greatest achievement with a win victory over Empoli at the Stadio Bentegodi on Sunday afternoon.

The match on Sunday will take place 30 years and five days after the Gialloblu’s greatest triumph, winning their only Scudetto on May 12 during the 1984-85 Serie A season.

A couple of days short of the anniversary, Hellas missed the chance to revel in that success in the Veronese derby as Chievo secured a 2-2 draw. This time, i butei will hope the players help them fully celebrate the teams past success in the stands by delivering victory on the pitch.

Andrea Mandorlini’s men will need to buck a three game winless streak in order to get the party in full swing. After back-to-back wins in April (the first time since the opening weeks of the season) Hellas failed to build on that momentum to record draws either side of a home defeat to Udinese. The Gialloblu are unlikely to better their tenth placed finish on their return to Serie A last season after an 11 year absence.

One of last year’s promoted clubs, Empoli come to the Bentegodi having already secured their top-flight status. Maurizio Sarri’s side haven’t been in the bottom three since Week 4 of the season and could, mathematically, still finish as high as tenth in the table.

The key for the Azzurri has been picking up valuable points along the way. They are the league’s draw specialists (17) and, at this stage, have lost as many games (ten) as they did in the whole of their Serie B campaign and arrive in Verona with only two defeats in their last eight trips away from home.

Empoli did lose last time out by the odd goal in five at home to Fiorentina, only the fourth time all season they have conceded three goals or more. Former under-21 Portuguese international Mario Rui sat out through suspension but the 23-year-old centre-back is expected return as the only change to Sarri’s starting 11.

Hellas have had discipline issues of late with three red cards in their past four matches and losing Panagiotis Tachtsidis and Bosko Jankovic for Sunday’s match after cautions against Chievo. Mandorlini can at least can welcome back Rafael Marquez and Jacopo Sala after their straight reds against Udinese.

Luca Toni will lead the line for Hellas and spoke of his desire to finish the season as Serie A top scorer. The 37-year-old won the title with Fiorentina in 2006 (before lifting the World Cup with Italy) and, with 19 goals, is one behind Carlos Tevez in the battle to be this season’s capocannoniere.

Toni would become the first recipient of the award for the Gialloblu and Empoli will have to keep the veteran striker out to have any chance of spoiling the party.

Form Guide: Hellas Verona (D-L-D-W-W-L), Empoli (L-W-W-D-D-L)

Expected Starting XIs

Hellas Verona: Rafael; Pisano, Moras, Marquez, Agostini; Sala, Obbadi, Hallfreosson; Gomez, Toni, Lopez.

Empoli: Sepe; Hysaj, Tonelli, Rugani, Mario Rui; Vecino, Valdifiori, Croce; Saponara; Maccarone, Pucciarelli.

 

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