Good afternoon all. Kickoff is just a bit over an hour away so please excuse the late posting. I'm furiously typing this up on my lunch hour, as this is my first week at my new gig.
This is the closest that our Viola have been to a trophy in several years. People may not agree with me on this, but I value this highly. I think that teams grow greatly from winning competitions, and the increase in the collective swag of the squad would be immense if they could pull this off. Just look at the improved performance of last year's CL to this year's CL - the more battle-hardened team with some key veteran additions (Zanetti) rose to the occasion and performed very well. Having a trophy would mean quite a bit to the key members of the team who have not yet accomplished this feat as a professional: RickyMonty, Bassy, Gamberini, etc. Feel free to rip me in the comments about how all the team should be focusing on is finishing 4th in Serie A, etc. I'm not saying that isn't important (it clearly is), I'm just saying that a trophy would be epic and would be a great achievement in the Della Valle/Corvino/Prandelli era.
This will be a difficult match, as Inter have been typically dominant this season against Italian opposition (they ain't got nothin on us in the Champions League). Also, its an away match. I'm not sure how Cesare will play things, but a score draw would be a great result (I'm thinking a win is pretty unlikely but we can cross our fingers and a 0-0 wouldn't be the worst thing - if we could ever hold a team scoreless).
Lineups, aka Blind Guess Dept.
Fiorentina: 4-2-3-1: Bassy; Gobbi, Gamberini, Kroldrup, Comotto; RickyMonty, Donadel; Ljajic, Jo-Jo, Santana; Gila Monster.
Inter:
Hopefully Francesco Toldo gets a run out in goal. I miss him from the days when I started following the team. I'm having connection issues so I'm going to just hope that I can post this. Sorry for no blind guess at the Inter 11.
TeeVee?
This bad boy kicks off at 2:45 EST and will be broadcast on that GolTV. I'm sure there will be streams as well.
Prediciton Time:
I say we improbably get out of there with a 1-1. Goals from Jo-Jo and Balotelli.