AC Milan at the Artemio Franchi on Sunday evening in Serie A’s first highly anticipated encounter of the season.
Newly appointed coach Paulo Sousa will hope to keep up the momentum that Vincenzo Montella created with the team last season and a win against the Rossoneri may be an indicator of another good season in Florence.
Meanwhile, the visitors have been one of the big Serie A spenders this summer and all new signings, along with new coach Sinisa Mihajlovic, will certainly be motivated to justify the money spent to bring them to the Stadio Giuseppe Meazza.
Both teams started last campaign in a contrasting campaign, with the Viola losing 2-0 away to Roma in the opening Serie A round this time last year while the Rossoneri beat Lazio 3-1 in front of home crowd. These first results proved poor indicators of the seasons to come for the two teams, as Fiorentina went on to finish in fourth spot, just three points short of the Champions League, while the Rossoneri barely hung on to their 10th position by the same margin.
Last time these sides met in Serie A, Fiorentina were victorious 2-1 in Florence. Milan have only won one in the last seven Serie A meetings against Fiorentina, but that triumph came at the Artemio Franchi in the spring of 2014, when they picked up a 2-0 win thanks to goals from Philippe Mexes and Mario Balotelli.
The home team was not too active to bring reinforcements this season, with the two biggest additions being defensive midfielder Mario Suarez from Atletico Madrid and Croatian forward Nikola Kalinic, who was a key figure in his former side Dnipro as they reached the Europa League final last season. At the same time, Fiorentina sold their starting goalkeeper Neto and parted ways with players such as Juan Vargas, David Pizarro, and Alberto Aquilani.
The Rossoneri, on the other hand, invested a lot of money after the disappointing campaign last season and brought high-profile additions such as Carlos Bacca from Sevilla, Copa America winner with Chile this summer, and Shakhtar Donetsk’s goal-scoring machine Luiz Adriano. The Rossoneri also signed defender Alessio Romagnoli, making him the second Giallorossi youth product to arrive at the San Siro this summer after midfielder Andrea Bertolacci. At the same time Milan have got rid of a lot of deadwood including Daniele Bonera, Sulley Muntari, Michael Essien and Giampaolo Pazzini.
Federico Bernardeschi is an injury debut for the game but is likely start, however, Kalinic is unlikely to make his debut because of injury.
Milan meanwhile we not be able to call upon Jeremy Menez, M’Baye Niang, Riccardo Montolivo, Ignazio Abate and Mexes due to injury.
Expected Starting XIs:
Fiorentina: Tatarusanu; Tomovic, Rodriguez, Astori, Alonso; Valero, Suarez, Fernandez; Ilicic, Babacar, Bernardeschi
AC Milan: Diego Lopez; De Sciglio, Ely, Romagnoli, Antonelli; Bonaventura, De Jong, Bertolacci; Honda, Bacca, Luiz Adriano
