Both fresh from four-goal displays in Europe, Fiorentina and Roma return to domestic duty on Sunday evening, at Stadio Artemio Franchi.

While the Viola edged a seven-goal thriller, their capital-city counterparts thumped Brighton & Hove Albion to all but assure a place in the Europa League quarter-finals. Now, they resume the race for a top-six Serie A finish.

Match preview

Continuing their mission to make another final, following last season's loss in the Europa Conference League decider, Fiorentina took on Maccabi Haifa at the neutral venue of Budapest's Bozsik Arena earlier this week.

With goals being exchanged at regular intervals, a wide-open contest ultimately ended 4-3 to the Viola, who will be favourites to progress from next Thursday's return leg in Florence, where they must host Roma and AC Milan either side of the international break.

In fact, Vincenzo Italiano's side face a potentially decisive period between now and late April, as they will also tackle Juventus and Atalanta BC in the league, in addition to playing out both legs of their Coppa Italia semi-final against La Dea.

Following last week's goalless draw with 10-man Torino, a meagre tally of just two league wins in 2024 leaves Fiorentina four points behind Italy's top six, so there is plenty of catching up to do.

On a five-match winless streak away from home in Serie A, the Viola now return to Stadio Franchi, where they have won six of their last eight league matches - although they were 1-0 down at half time in three out of the last four.

Given Roma's fine form, allowing their next visitors to take the lead could prove fatal - and they cannot afford to let the resurgent Giallorossi move eight points above them.

While Fiorentina are ultimately aiming to follow in the footsteps of Roma - Europa Conference League winners in 2022 - the capital club are hoping to go one step further than last year and triumph in this term's Europa League final.

They took one giant stride closer on Thursday, when Roberto De Zerbi's Brighton were put to the sword at Stadio Olimpico, as Paulo Dybala opened the scoring in a spectacular 4-0 win over their last-16 opponents.

The Giallorossi are also starting to thrive in domestic competition, with returning hero Daniele De Rossi making a major impact since being brought back to the Olimpico as head coach until the end of the season.

Beating mid-table Monza 4-1 last week took De Rossi on to seven wins - his team's only loss has been to Scudetto favourites Inter Milan - and Roma average around three goals per game under his management.

Helping them up to fifth in the Serie A standings, only Inter and surprise package Bologna have earned more points over the past seven rounds, and no team has scored more frequently.

Ending a trend that has plagued Roma for several years will be De Rossi's next task, as ahead of their trip to Tuscany, they have earned the fewest points from games between Italy's top eight teams this season: just five in nine matches.

Team News

After Vincenzo Italiano shuffled his pack in midweek - bringing in struggling striker M'Bala Nzola among others - Fiorentina's head coach should select his strongest available side on Sunday evening.

Despite scoring the opener in Hungary, Nzola is likely to make way for Roma loanee Andrea Belotti, who has six league goals to his name against the Giallorossi and would enjoying proving a point to his parent club. Fellow forward Lucas Beltran must serve a suspension.

Oliver Christensen and Gaetano Castrovilli are still sidelined by injury for the Viola, who also expect to be without Christian Kouame, currently recovering from malaria.

Meanwhile, Roma's Rasmus Kristensen is due to serve a one-match ban but is injured in any case, joining Rick Karsdorp and long-term absentee Tammy Abraham in the treatment room.

Daniele De Rossi may make changes before his squad head to Brighton next week, so it remains to be seen whether Romelu Lukaku and Paulo Dybala will again be paired up front.

Lukaku recently hit double figures in one of Europe's top five leagues for an 11th season, while Dybala has just been crowned Serie A's February 'Player of the Month' after scoring five times in three league matches.

Fiorentina possible starting lineup:
Terracciano; Kayode, Milenkovic, Martinez Quarta, Biraghi; Duncan, Arthur; Gonzalez, Bonaventura, Sottil; Belotti

Roma possible starting lineup:
Svilar; Celik, Mancini, Smalling, Angelino; Cristante, Paredes, Pellegrini; Dybala, Lukaku, El Shaarawy

We say: Fiorentina 1-1 Roma

A repeat of the result in December's reverse fixture could be on the cards, as Fiorentina are far tougher to beat on home turf and Roma do not always produce their best outside the capital. The Giallorossi's rapid progress may therefore hit a minor bump in the road.


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