Roma vs Fiorentina

February 6, 2017
By: Milos Markovic

Giallorossi are aiming to reclaim the second place in the Serie A standings from Napoli as they prepare for a high-profile match with Fiorentina, who still have their eye set on the European places.

Roma in desperate need of points

Luciano Spalletti and his men have been putting plenty of pressure on Juventus for the good part of the season but seeing that Giallorossi lost their match at Sampdoria could be a bad omen ahead of a highly-anticipated clash against Fiorentina. Roma were in the Coppa Italia quarter-final action last week, scraping past Cesena thanks to a 90th-minute penalty from Francesco Totti and Spalletti will demand an improvement this time around as his team aims to remain in the race for Scudetto. Roma are currently in third place of the Serie A table, one point behind Napoli and with a game in hand. A win over Fiorentina would see them restore the runners-up spot and give them a chance to continue the pursuit of Juventus. Desperate of points, Roma are also desperate of continuity which has, for an unfortunate brief moment, been broken by the 3-2 Sampdoria loss.

Having lost in the final of the African Cup of Nations, Mohamed Salah is yet to return to the squad, but Spalletti will be without a couple of more first-team choices as well.  Alessandro Florenzi is suffering from an ACL injury whereas Juan Jesus and Diego Perotti are having muscular and hamstring problems respectively.

Viola’s purple patch

Having suffered back to back Serie A defeats at the hands of Genoa and Lazio, respectively, Fiorentina got back to business with a five-match unbeaten run which yielded two draws and three wins. Paulo Sousa’s men were eliminated from the Coppa Italia during that time as Napoli scraped a 1-0 win, but Serie A remains the priority for Fiorentina who are still dreaming of the European places. Viola are currently seventh in the standings, five points behind the Europa League play-off spots and huge ten behind the final Champions League spot occupied by Roma. Knowing that there is plenty of games still to be played in the season, Viola will want to beat Roma on Tuesday in order to kick-star the campaign and extend the purple patch to six games without a defeat.

Fiorentina will also have several injury problems as star of the team Nikola Kalinic will be out with knee injury, whereas Rodriguez, Dragowski and Tatarusanu are also ruled out for the occasion. January signing Riccardo Saponara is a major doubt for the game.

Verdict

Fiorentina are in good form, but Roma are enjoying a fantastic home run which saw them win 13 and draw 1 of their last 15 matches at home, which is quite a result. Luciano Spalletti’s men are the force to be reckoned with in Rome and Viola are in for a difficult task on Tuesday.

Top pick: Roma   1.65 (13/20) @BetFair

Alternative pick 1: Draw/Roma   4.75 (15/4) @BetVictor

Alternative pick 2: Both teams to score – yes   1.67 (4/6) @Bet365

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