My Bologna Has A First Name....

If Bologna did have a first name, it could be Albano, for President Albano Guaraldi, It could be Stefano, for Head Coach Stefano Pioli, It might be Gianluca, for Goalie Gianluca Curci or even Panagiotis, for leader scorer Panagiotis Kone.

But really, their fans just call them the Rossoblù and those fans are a bit blue as Bologna has had very mediocre results lately, with their last win in the league coming all the way back on October 30th, a 3-0 win at Cagliari. Since then Bologna have 2 losses and 3 ties, although one of those ties were at Inter's expense.

Besides the Cagliari win, Bologna have only managed one other victory, a 1-0 home win against Livorno and they are second bottom on the league table. The Rossoblu also suffered a defeat last week against Siena, knocking them out of the Coppa Italia.

Bologna have managed 6 ties however, and another one at the Franchi on Sunday would suit them and former Viola defender Cesare Natali just fine.

The visitors have been starting out with a 3-4-3 formation in recent Serie A matches, and bring on extra defenders or forwards depending on the situation, defenders to preserve ties and forwards to try to come back from deficits.

On the other side of the pitch, Fiorentina are coming off an Europa League win that cemented first place in their group, however their League form has been a bit mediocre as they've gone 50-50 in the last six matches, with wins against Verona, Sampdoria and Milan and losses against Napoli, Udinese and most recently, AS Roma.

Fiorentina are starting a run against what must be considered "lesser" competition as they don't see a big name for the next 8 matches, until February, when they face Inter again, and will be looking for a nice strong run.

Viola fans will have to wait for the long anticipated return of Mario Gomez, he's just not ready. Giuseppi Rossi will feature forward, most likely with Juan Cuadrado and Juan Vargas or Joaquin as the third forward.

David Pizarro will certainly be back in the starting lineup, with Borja Valero and, sadly, Alberto Aquilani will most likely start on the other side. Massimo Ambrosini will miss the match on yellow card accumulation.

Nenad Tomovic will probably return to the lineup, along with Gonzalo Rodriguez, Stefan Savic and Manuel Pasqual in front of Norberto Neto for Vincenzo Montella.