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Italy: Serie A Preview- Fiorentina v Udinese [Sat Sep 17th, 2005]
This week an interesting encounter awaits Serie A fans, as two teams are fighting for the spoils of victory and are undefeated as of yet.
Background
Fiorentina are recovering from last year and are playing exciting football. However, defensive lapses still exist as they squandered two points against Messina last week. Now they face an extremely motivated and high-flying Udinese, who promise to put any team in great difficulty.
Fiorentina have great resources at their disposal and it is possible to beat Udinese, as they will be tired from playing in the UEFA Champions League this week. However, the Fiorentina offence will have their work cut out as Udinese are a defensively strong team, but also capable of scoring as they showed in the Champions League.
Udinese are on a high as they stand on top of the table with Juventus. While it is early in the season and the table has yet to balance out, this team is more than capable of handling them-selves and achieving great things.
They have not conceded a goal as of yet and have just proved they can score goals and dominate games along with holding a lead, stifling the opposition and scoring against the run of play as they did against Roma. They are a mixed bag.
However, one thing is for sure: they know how to win. With important departures of key players along with Spalletti, Udinese are still riding high and Cosmi is proving to be more than a worthy replacement and his philosophy is being respected by the players.
If Udinese go far this year, Juve, Inter and a host of European teams will be knocking for the man who dresses with clothes one size smaller than the actual measure he takes. Iaquinta is proving to be a great goal scorer and what a debut he made as he scored thrice.
This could very well be the battle of the strikers and Lippi will be watching with his famous cigar along with some aspirin as he has a plethora of options.
Team news
There are no suspensions for both teams, but Maggio of Fiorentina is injured as Bertotto is out for Udinese. All in all, the coaches have a full team at their disposal.
Players to watch
Toni (Fiorentina)
Just keeps on scoring. He could be the one to penetrate the Udinese defence and perhaps inflict their first defeat of the season.
Iaquinta (Udinese)
Scored 3 goals against Panathinaikos and he would love to score more. He is more than capable of doing so and he could very well penetrate the Fiorentina defence and hand the Viola their first loss.
Probable Starting XIs:
Fiorentina (4-3-3):
Frey, Ujfalusi, Di Lorettom Dainelli, Pancaro, Fiore, Brocchi, Donadel, Jorgensen, Bojinov, Toni. Coach: Prandelli.
Udinese (3-5-2):
De Sanctis, Juarez, Natali, Felipe, D. Zenoni, Vidigal, Obodo, Muntari, Candela, Di Natale, Iaquinta. Coach: Cosmi.
Bruno Cardile
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