Fiorentina vs Guingamp: Match Preview

The Purple Camp

It isn't always rainbows and butterflies in the purple offices even if Joaquin is always present. Reportedly, a small portion of the fans have sounded their frustration at the lack of goals and pointed the fingers at Gomez. In other news, Cuadrado and Aquilani talks are still ongoing and are for some reason taking too long. This much uncertainty probably plays a factor in the team performance. Two official matches were played and no goals were scored with one point accumulated. Positives are that Montella iterated that the team will be taking Europe seriously and Della Valle insisted that third place is Fiorentina's realistic objective this season.

The French Camp

The French league is five games in and Guingamp is ranked 16 "just like Fiorentina in Serie A" with two wins and three losses. The last match was a 2-1 victory over Bordeaux. As rare as this happens, it did last season in French football; Giungamp qualified directly to Europa League group stage by winning the domestic league cup. Guingamp players Lionel "Not Messi" Mathis and Jeremy Pied were interviewed to compare the upcoming Europa League opener as "David & Goliath". The general atmosphere is good after the big win last weekend and the interviewed players confirmed that they will be playing with pleasure against a team like Fiorentina and explained the team's strength depends on the unity of the group.

The Match

The anticipated opening match of Europa League for Fiorentina is set for 18th September 2014 at the Stadio Artemio Franchi. Fiorentina played 12 matches against Ligue 1 teams in history winning in three, drawing in five and losing four. Austrian referee Harald Lechner will be the official referee of the match. The Bundesliga referee recorded 41 bookings sending off one player with a second yellow and two direct red cards in only eight matches since the start of this season in all competitions. Taking into consideration that Fiorentina will look to keep the ball; this will be more problematic for Guingamp. On the other hand, a wrong tackle on counter by any Viola player will look too bad for such a referee (Can only hope for the best).

Injuries and Suspension

Guingamp will be missing full back Lars Jacobsen, midfielder Younesse Sankhare, Reynald Lemaitre and Laurent Dos Santos. Fiorentina continue to miss Rossi and Marin is out of the named 21 squad for fitness issues. There is sure to be some new signings on the starting XI list today and hopefully one or two will be giving Montella the solutions for his areas of struggle.

Projected Line-up

Fiorentina: Neto, Richards, Savic, Basanta, Pasqual, Badelj, Aquilani, Vargas, Cuadrado, Ilicic, Gomez

Guingamp: Samassa - Baca, Kerbrat, Sorbon, Lévêque - Beauvue, Mathis, Diallo, Giresse - Mandanne Schwartz.

Where & When

Here is where the match will be broadcast 18th Sep at 19:05 GMT / 15:05 ET

Europe: BeIN 1, BeIN MAX 4

Middle East - North Africa: BeIN HD 3

USA: I could not get any info on that since all legal live streaming channels are not available for my country so I could not view the schedule. I am sure that neither Fox Sports nor BeIN TV regular channels will broadcast the match.

There are many reasons for Montella and Co. to go ballistic on Guingamp today; Take a step towards qualification to the next round, strike a hit on the French European coefficient and bounce back from the last two matches' results in Serie A.