Fiorentinavs.Torino

The Viola's mid-season slump continued with defeat to rock-bottom Monza on Monday, while Toro's last outing brought one point from the Turin derby.

Match preview

After a superb run of eight straight wins in Serie A briefly took them into the title race, Fiorentina are now winless in five top-flight matches - and six overall.

Their woes reached a new low earlier this week, when losing 2-1 in Monza, against opponents who had previously failed to win a single league game at home.

Having started the year with a 3-0 home defeat to title contenders Napoli - which saw them suffer consecutive Serie A losses at Stadio Franchi for the first time since 2023 - the Tuscan side have now slipped down to sixth place.

On home turf, Fiorentina have not lost three league games on the spin for almost 20 years, so the pressure is being ratcheted up on head coach Raffaele Palladino, who had so recently been receiving plenty of plaudits.

Already out of the Coppa Italia, and with the Conference League on hiatus, the Viola must concentrate on turning things around in the Italian top flight - starting by extending a good run of results against Torino.

Failing to score in any of the last three, Torino have won just two of their last 10 league games against Fiorentina, including a 1-0 home loss in November's reverse fixture.

Since the middle of last month, the Granata's form has been little better than the Viola's, and a hard-fought draw in last week's Derby della Mole was their third successive stalemate.

Like his Juventus counterpart Thiago Motta, Toro coach Paolo Vanoli was sent off during the Turin derby, but an excellent Nikola Vlasic equaliser at least helped his side avoid yet another derby defeat.

Though there were signs of life against Juve, they have now won only two of their last 15 Serie A matches, in addition to crashing out of the Coppa Italia - incidentally, at the hands of Empoli, who then went on to eliminate Fiorentina.

Scoring goals remains Torino's main problem, as they have found the net just five times in 11 league matches, but it remains to be seen whether Vanoli will welcome any reinforcements during the winter transfer window.

Fiorentina Serie A form:

W

L

L

D

L

L

Fiorentina form (all competitions):

L

D

L

D

L

L

Torino Serie A form:

D

W

L

D

D

D

Team News

Fiorentina's sole fitness concern relates to Danilo Cataldi, who is struggling with a thigh injury, so Amir Richardson, Rolando Mandragora and recent signing Michael Folorunsho will compete to partner Yacine Adli in central midfield.

Up front, Moise Kean is the Viola's top scorer across all competitions with 15 goals this season, and either Albert Gudmundsson or Lucas Beltran should lead his supporting cast on Sunday.

After converting a penalty in Monday's loss to Monza, the latter is just one goal involvement away from last term's final Serie A tally, with seven in 16 games so far. Hampered by injuries, Gudmundsson has yet to hit the heights he reached for Genoa.

Meanwhile, Torino's misfiring front line will be led by Antonio Sanabria or Che Adams, with captain Duvan Zapata ruled out for the rest of the season.

Paolo Vanoli - who is banned from the touchline - also has some issues to resolve in midfield, as Karol Linetty must serve a suspension and Ivan Ilic is still injured. Samuele Ricci and Adrien Tameze may therefore start, because Gvidas Gineitis has only just returned to full training.

Centre-back Sebastian Walukiewicz is also unavailable, having reached the yellow-card threshold that triggers an automatic one-match ban.

Fiorentina possible starting lineup:

De Gea; Dodo, Comuzzo, Ranieri, Gosens; Adli, Mandragora; Colpani, Beltran, Sottil; Kean

Torino possible starting lineup:

Milinkovic-Savic; Vojvoda, Maripan, Coco, Sosa; Ricci, Tameze; Lazaro, Vlasic, Karamoh; Adams

We say: Fiorentina 1-0 Torino

Surely Fiorentina can put a halt to their downturn this weekend, as Torino have trouble finding the net.

Written by

Jonathan O'Shea

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