Leccevs.Fiorentina

The Viola toppled AC Milan last time out, while a second straight loss left Lecce uncomfortably close to the Serie A drop zone.

Match preview

In an eventful end to a busy week for Fiorentina, David de Gea saved two penalties and pulled off a couple of crucial saves, as goals from Yacine Adli - against parent club Milan - and Albert Gudmundsson earned the Viola victory at Stadio Franchi.

Moise Kean missed a spot-kick and several other chances, in addition to conceding a penalty, but new strike partner Gudmundsson bailed him out with a 73rd-minute winner.

That 2-1 success followed an unconvincing defeat of Welsh side The New Saints in the UEFA Conference League, but head coach Raffaele Palladino will have been relieved to enter the break with back-to-back wins.

Palladino's side are yet to win consecutive Serie A matches this season, and they can now aim to do so on Sunday, as well as producing a first away victory of a mixed 2024-25 campaign.

Occupying 11th place in the table, Fiorentina are still underperforming compared with pre-season expectations, though De Gea has added some star quality between the posts and the Kean-Gudmundsson pairing shows signs of promise.

Ahead of taking the long trek south to Salento, the Tuscan club hold a slender lead over Lecce on the overall ledger: winning 11, drawing 11 and losing 10 of the teams' previous top-flight encounters.

Lecce narrowed that gap by winning their last game against Fiorentina 3-2, and they will now seek to post consecutive home victories over the Viola for the first time since 1991.

Before Serie A was put on pause for international football to intervene, head coach Luca Gotti saw his side lose 1-0 to former club Udinese, leaving Lecce on a five-match winless streak when including a Coppa Italia defeat to second-tier Sassuolo.

Sitting in 17th place, with just five points from seven league matches, the Salentini have scored only one goal from open play this term, fewer than any other team in Italy's top flight.

Indeed, it is a longstanding problem that plagues them, having failed to score in more games this calendar year (16 out of 27) than anyone else across Europe's top five leagues - already their worst record in Serie A for some 35 years.

Yet, there may be signs of a turnaround at Via del Mare: after a run of three consecutive defeats, Lecce have picked up four points from their last two home fixtures, scoring three goals in the process - one more than throughout the previous eight.

Lecce Serie A form:

L

W

D

D

L

L

Lecce form (all competitions):

W

D

D

L

L

L

Fiorentina Serie A form:

D

D

L

W

D

W

Fiorentina form (all competitions):

D

L

W

D

W

W

Team News

While Moise Kean should return from the back problem that forced him to withdraw from Italy duty, Fiorentina will be missing Rolando Mandragora (knee) and Marin Pongracic (thigh) through injury this weekend.

Kean is set to lead the Viola's attacking trident, supported by Andrea Colpani and Albert Gudmundsson, the latter of whom has scored three of his team's last four league goals.

The Iceland international will now try to become the only man to find the net in each of his first four Serie A appearances for Fiorentina since Luca Toni did so back in 2005.

Meanwhile, Lecce's attack is led by Montenegro striker Nikola Krstovic, who has scored 67% of the Giallorossi's league goals this term - a joint-high across Europe's top five leagues, along with Ipswich Town's Liam Delap.

Luca Gotti will again be without injured trio Kevin Bonifazi, Mohamed Kaba and Medon Berisha, while Lameck Banda is still short of fitness, meaning Ante Rebic and Danish winger Patrick Dorgu should start either side of Krstovic in the final third.

Lecce possible starting lineup:

Falcone; Guilbert, Gaspar, Baschirotto, Gallo; Ramadani, Coulibaly, Pierret; Dorgu, Krstovic, Rebic

Fiorentina possible starting lineup:

De Gea; Dodo, Comuzzo, Ranieri, Gosens; Adli, Cataldi, Bove; Colpani, Gudmundsson; Kean

We say: Lecce 1-1 Fiorentina

Notably, Fiorentina have scored the joint-most Serie A goals from set-piece situations this season - averaging one per game so far - and they are very likely to find the net again on Sunday.

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