Football – Italy – Serie A
Wednesday 24th September 2014 – Kickoff: 2045hrs
Fiorentina will go in search of a third successive win when they host Sassuolo at their Stadio Artemio Franchi ground on Wednesday night following successes in the Europa League and last Sunday’s Serie A fixture.
The hosts registered a convincing 3-0 win over French Ligue 1 outfit Guingamp in the Europa League at home and then followed that up with a 1-0 win away at Atalanta last Sunday which has pushed Fiorentina up into a top half place. They did suffer defeat away at AS Roma 0-2 in their season-opener, but to be fair, Roma look to be the team to beat in these early stages of the Serie A season.
Fiorentina now have a great chance of adding back-to-back home wins in their next two matches as they host Sassuolo tonight and then bottom club Torino at the weekend before they make the tough trip to Dinamo Minsk in their next Europa league fixture.
Visitors Sassuolo suffered an embarrassing 0-7 hammering away at the hands of Inter Milan week before last, but they tightened things up in their last match as they held Sampdoria to a goalless draw 0-0 at home last weekend.
Another draw at home in their opening match of the season against Cagliari means that the visitors have gained just two points from their first three matches, scored just 1 goal and conceded 8 so far.
In addition, they’ve lost their last two away matches in Serie A and have conceded 9 goals as they lost 1-2 at AC Milan in their last away match of last term, and their suspect defence could come under scrutiny again here tonight.
Interestingly, Fiorentina lost to Sassuolo 3-4 last season in their last encounter, but tonight I reckon the hosts will be out to avenge that scoreline, and given Sassuolo’s recent problems in defence, I’ll back the hosts to also cover the -1 line too. Fiorentina to win this perhaps 2-0.
Pick: Fiorentina AH-1 @ 1.73 bet365
