FIORENTINA VS CROTONE PREVIEW & PREDICTION
Crotone recently fell below the dreaded line and therefore needs results to pass direct competitors on the rankings. Fiorentina has set his sights on a place with the best seven and will not want to cooperate.
Fiorentina:
Fiorentina is one of those teams in the Serie A this season that plays nice in the left row, but for which a place in the best six seems to be just too high. The formation of Stefano Pioli is pretty good in shape, but sometimes he wants to drop through the lower limit, so that a ticket for European football has not yet come into view. The current number nine of the ranking looks against a nine-point gap with number six AC Milan. Atalanta Bergamo and Sampdoria, the two clubs that have won three points so far, are still within lap distance and a single victory could be enough to close the gap with those two teams. The shape of Fiorentina is pretty good. The last three games yielded a victory, but it must be mentioned that the men of Pioli came into action against low flyers like Benevento and Chievo Verona where 1-0 was won.
On the weekend before the international break Fiorentina managed to get Torino in Turin on his knees. A crucial victory as both teams are in the race for a place in the top seven. The fact that Fiorentina ultimately took the three points was quite special. Andrea Belotti had undoed the opening goal of Jordan Veretout in the 86th minute and thus the game appeared to be heading to a 1-1 tie. However, this was counted outside of Cyril Thereau. The 34-year-old attacker recovered the margin of one on the scoreboard by entering a penalty kick in the 94th minute. The team from Florence will therefore prepare for Crotone with a good case.
Pioli will have to tinker with his formation this week because he misses three basic players. Cristiano Biraghi and Marco Benassi ran into a fatal yellow card in the previous game, which means they will now have to resign from a match. Miralem Badelj got injured last week when he came into action for the Croatian team and as a result Fiorentina will come up with a slightly different composition.
Crotone:
The story of Crotone from last season is now known. The low flyer seemed to be in the Serie B with one and a half leg, but an unprecedented advance eventually resulted in a place above the line. On the last day of play, the team eventually prevented the relegation. This year everything seemed to run a lot better, but after 28 matches the formation of trainer Walter Zenga is really under the line. To date, this is no reason for panic since Sassuolo, Chievo Verona and SPAL are all within three points of the current number eighteen, but the fact is that Crotone will have to gather more points to pass these competitors in the rankings. The shape of the last weeks is not really impressive. For example, Sampdoria won 4-1, which of course is a great result, but Crotone left it to hand out a sensitive tick to two other low flyers. In fact, two times 2-3 times were lost from Benevento and SPAL in a week.
Before the interland break, the men of Zenga crossed swords with AS Roma for their own audience and that is not exactly a duel that a team like Crotone should have. The game also indicated that there was little to be gained for the hosts. AS Roma delivered an adult duel and struck once before as well as after the break. By goals from Stephan El Shaarawy and Radja Nainggolan, a 0-2 final score appeared on the board. Because of this, Zenga will also realize that his team will really have to rise above themselves to book a result in Florence.
Zenga still can not have top scorer Ante Budimir, but that has been the case for some time. The Croatian striker is on the side with an injury and he will also have to miss the remainder of the season because of this injury.
PREDICTION: Fiorentina to win @ 1.49
