Fiorentina vs Venezia: Lineups and thread

Fiorentina will play their second friendly in as many days when they take the pitch tomorrow. This time, though, they won’t be up against an academy side; rather, they’ll be taking on a well-drilled group of professionals who were a playoff loss against Palermo away from promotion to Serie A. As one of the early favorites in Serie B this year, you can expect them to come out firing, especially on a well-soaked pitch that could disrupt their host’s passing.

Stefano Pioli will send out his first XI in this one. Nikola Milenković will start amongst the subs today, while Riccardo Saponara and Vincent Laurini remain conspicuously absent. Lorenzo Venuti should get at least a half with the big boys after Kevin Diks played yesterday. We could also see a cameo for new signing Christian Nørgaard, who’ll be the only central midfielder on the bench.

The Leoni Alati have a new manager in Stefano Vecchio, who replaced Filippo Inzaghi (now at Bologna) just a few weeks ago. Vecchio has generally used a 4-3-3, but Inzaghi’s preference for a 3-5-2 means the new mister could opt to maintain continuity rather than rock the boat with a whole new approach. Keep an eye out for goalkeeper Luca Lezzerini, a Viola academy product who was recently sold to Venezia and will be competing for the number one shirt.

Lineups

Fiorentina (4-3-3): Lafont; Biraghi, Vitor Hugo, Pezzella, Diks; Dabo, Veretout, Benassi; Eysseric, Simeone, Chiesa

Bench: Drągowski, Brancolini, Milenković, Venuti, Olivera, Nørgaard, Sottil, Vlahović

Venezia (3-5-2): Vicario; Domizzi, Bruscagin, Anđelković; Garofalo, Suciu, Bentivoglio, Falzerano; Zigoni, St. Clair

Bench: Lezzerini, Cicagna, Coppolaro, Di Mariano, Pinato, Zennaro, Schiavone, Migliorelli, Segre, Cernuto, Vrioni, Rossi

How to watch

TV: Nah.

Online: The official Viola website and the official Viola Facebook page should have you covered.

Forza Viola!