Really, there isn’t all that much to preview. Fiorentina MUST win this match if they are to have any hope at all for qualifying for the Champions League. The Viola are now a single point behind Milan for the fourth and final CL spot; one assumes that Fiorentina will have to win both of their games and simply hope for some sort of Milan screw-up for the Viola to qualify. Milan are away to Napoli this weekend, while Fiorentina plays their final match at home against 18th place Parma.
This is all compounded, of course, by the fact that Adrian Mutu will be unable to play the last two matches of the season due to his suspension. We can debate the fairness of the two-game ban, but the plain fact is that someone from the group of Pazzini, Santana, Semioli and the pu-pu platter of other forwards must step up this weekend and next. Without scoring the Viola will not win the game, and will not get the three points. Period.
That’s all I have for now. The fact that tomorrow is Mother’s Day combined with the fact that my wife is about to have our first child has left my schedule a little tight, and my previewing time has been made to suffer.
Recent Form
Fiorentina: W-L-W-D-L
Parma: D-L-L-L-W
Starting Line-Ups (AKA The Blind Guess Department
Fiorentina: Frey, Gobbi, Gamberini, Kroldrup, Ujfalusi- Kuzmanovic, Montolivo, Donadel- Semioli, Osvaldo, Pazzini
Parma: Pavarini- Coly, Paci, Zenoni, Rossi- Morrone, Gasbarroni, Cigarini, Dessena- Lucarelli, Reginaldo
Prediction
What the hell. 3-0 Fiorentina.
TV Situation
It looks right now that the match will not be shown on TV here in the States. Fire up the computers, everybody.
I will be back tomorrow night/ Monday morning with a recap, and hopefully not a post-mortem.
Forza Viola, everyone.