Fiorentina have started showing improvement following a disappointing start to the new season and they hope to revive their top 3 bid by defeating Inter Milan at Artemio Fanchi. The Nerazzurri seem to have recovered well from the shocking home loss to Cagliari and they now need to try and get something from the clash against Viola.

Rossi and Gomez continue to miss out

Having seen both Giuseppe Rossi and Mario Gomez miss the large chunk of the previous season through injury, Fiorentina should have signed at least two more quality attackers, but they rather focused on reinforcing defence and attack, which could end up costing them dearly this term. The highly rated strikers are again on the sidelines and they are clearly being sorely missed at the moment. While the team have shown plenty of improvement at the back, keeping five clean sheets in seven matches, they had no problems scoring in Europa League matches against minnows Guingamp and Dinamo Minsk, but could only muster two goals in five league fixtures. And with attack-minded players Juan Cuadrado and Marko Marin doubtful through injury, Viola cannot be expected to fare much better against very good Inter Milan side. With inexperienced Khouma Babacar leading the line, Vincenzo Montella is well aware that his team’s best chance of winning this match is by keeping a clean sheet and the hosts cannot be expected to risk too much given their attacking frailties.

Mario Gomez, Giuseppe Rossi, Joaquin and Micah Richards are out injured, while Juan Cuadrado and Marko Marin face fitness tests.

Cagliari defeat a one-off result

Inter Milan boss Walter Mazzarri has had to do some squad rebuilding this summer and he seems to have done a very good job. With so many players coming and going, the former Napoli coach has yet to find his strongest starting eleven, but there have been plenty of positives in the opening exchanges. And despite summer signing Nemanja Vidic committing some shocking mistakes, Inter have looked pretty impressive at the back most of the time, keeping seven clean sheets in nine competitive matches, with last weekend’s 4-1 home loss to Cagliari something that is unlikely to happen again. The likes of Osvaldo and Icardi have done really well up front and once Rodrigo Palacio rediscovers his form, the Nerazzurri will be even more dangerous in attack. Even if Inter could really use three points from Artemio Franchi, don’t expect the visitors to go all out attack as they are well aware Viola can be lethal on the counterattack. Walter Mazzarri will rather try to keep things tight at the back seeing as how his side would probably be quite satisfied even with one point from the match.

Yuto Nagatomo is banned, while Mateo Kovacic and Dodo are injury doubts. Hugo Campagnaro and Jonathan are definitely out.

Verdict

The stakes will be high when Fiorentina host Inter on Sunday afternoon and with both sides looking very good at the back, chances are we are about to see a low-scoring match. Neither team will be prepared to take too many risks at Artemio Franchi, meaning they could easily cancel each other out.

Top pick: Under 2.5 goals   1.78 (39/50) @ BetVictor

Alternative pick 1: Under 1.5 goals   3.20 (11/5) @ Paddy Power

Alternative pick 2: Draw   3.30 (23/10) @ Unibet