Fiorentina vs. AC Milan: Team News, Predicted Lineups, Live Stream, TV Info
Two teams that underwent radical changes during the summer will square off in the prime Sunday night slot on Serie A's opening weekend.
Date: Sunday, August 23
Time: 8:30 p.m. CET, 7:30 p.m. BST, 2:30 p.m. EDT
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Venue: Stadio Artemio Franchi, Florence
TV Info: BT Sport Europe (UK)
Live Stream: beIN Sports Connect (US)
Change was the theme for AC Milan and Fiorentina this offseason. Both teams changed coaches, and Milan overhauled their entire roster.
The Rossoneri wisely cut bait on the Filippo Inzaghi experiment after only one year and replaced him with Sinisa Mihajlovic.
It was something of a controversial hire. Before he took over at Sampdoria in 2013, Mihajlovic had largely been a failure at Fiorentina and with the Serbian national team. There was also the thorny issue of his deep connections with crosstown rivals Inter.
But Mihajlovic proved his worth at Samp. He kept a young team in the top five for a large portion of the season. They ended up finishing seventh but qualified for the Europa League when Genoa failed to obtain a UEFA license.
Mihajlovic will be at the helm of a team that looks a lot different than last year's 10th-place finishers. After years of austerity, outside investment allowed a spending spree worthy of Berlusconi's biggest.
The center-back pairing—one of the most maligned parts of the team for years—has gotten a makeover, with youngsters Alessio Romagnoli and Rodrigo Ely (combined age: 41) expected to handle the starting duties. Andrea Bertolacci has been brought in to strengthen the midfield, and the forward line is completely changed with new signings Luiz Adriano and Carlos Bacca.
Those new signings, plus holdovers like Luca Antonini and Nigel de Jong, will slot into a brand-new 4-3-1-2 formation. Without European competition for the second consecutive year, Milan are on a mission to get back into the top five. A lot of pieces still need to coalesce, but there is an optimism around this team that hasn't been present in a while.
Fiorentina didn't have all that much in the way of player turnover. Mario Gomez has gone on loan to Besiktas, and the likes of Neto, David Pizzaro and Juan Manuel Vargas have been sold. Fortunately for La Viola, with the exception of Neto, all of those players were either aging or injury-prone—although the saga surrounding Mohamed Salah is another blow in the market.
Replacing Pizzaro and Vargas is Mario Suarez, late of Atletico Madrid. Davide Astori has arrived on loan to cover the departure of Stefan Savic. The team will also be getting Federico Bernardeschi and Giuseppe Rossi back from knee injuries. If they stay healthy—always a question in the latter's case—it will be like two brand-new signings up front.
The big change in Florence comes in the manager's office. Vincenzo Montella led the team to three consecutive fourth-place finishes. In 2012-13, he came a Mario Balotelli penalty away from going to the Champions League.
But when he became noncommittal about his future with the club, he sparked acrimony with team ownership. He was unceremoniously sacked and replaced by Paolo Sousa, who took Basel into the Champions League knockout stage last year. The Portuguese coach will now look to improve on Montella's results with a lot of the same players.
Form Lines
| Fiorentina | AC Milan |
| W 1-0 @ Chelsea | W 2-0 vs. Perugia |
| W 2-1 vs. Barcelona | L 2-0 vs Tottenham |
| D 0-0 vs. Benfica* | L 3-0 vs Bayern Munich |
| L 4-2 vs PSG | L 2-1 @ Lyon |
| W 3-0 vs Chievo** | W 5-1 vs. Legnano |
Fiorentina Notes:
*Won penalty shootout
**2014-15 Serie A
Projected Lineups
| Fiorentina | AC Milan |
| Tatarusanu | Lopez |
| Pasqual Rodriguez Basanta Tomovic | Abate Romagnoli Ely Antonelli |
| Suarez Valero Fernandez | Bertolacci De Jong Bonaventura |
| Bernardesci Rossi Iliicic | Honda |
| Adriano Bacca |
Players to Watch
All eyes in Florence this year will be on Giuseppe Rossi. One of the most talented strikers in Italy when healthy, he has been dogged by right knee injures ever since injuring himself early in the 2011-12 season when he was at Villarreal.
He's only stayed healthy for half a season since then, but what a half season it was. He scored 16 times and led the league in scoring for a significant portion of the year even after missing the entire second half after a horror tackle from Livorno's Lorenzo Ariaudo caused more knee issues that robbed him of the entirety of last season.
If he's healthy, Rossi could be the equivalent of a €30 million signing. The Viola will hope he can start the season with a bang and dovetail with the young Bernardeschi—who just received the No. 10 shirt—to form a strong striking tandem.
Last year, under Pippo Inzaghi, Keisuke Honda played out of position on the wing. He's always been more of an attacking midfielder, but Inzaghi was heavily influenced by his old coach Carlo Ancelotti, whose 4-3-3 eschews a trequartista.
With Mihajlovic reintroducing his favored role, the Japan international has a chance to show why he was so hotly pursued two years ago when his contract with CSKA Moscow was expiring.
If Monday's Coppa Italia win over Perugia was any indication, a renaissance is in the offing. Honda pulled the strings expertly from his advanced position, scoring the first goal and setting up the second. The entire team pulled back as the game went on, but it was a very promising start.
Now Honda must prove he can do the same thing he did against Serie B opposition against a team that made the Europa League semifinal last year. If he can replicate the shift he put in in the Coppa, Milan could truly have an attack worth fearing.
Key Matchup
Carlos Bacca finished in the top five on the scoring charts in La Liga last season with Sevilla, but the €30 million man is about to get a dose of Serie A for the first time.
Defending is in Italy's DNA, and Serie A remains the most tactically sophisticated league in Europe. Combined with a raft of good defenders, the Italian top flight is most unfriendly for strikers.
The success or failure of Bacca as a signing will depend on how well he adapts to the tactics and the individual defending. He'll get his first taste of top-level individual battles when he faces Gonzalo Rodriguez. The Argentine is a good tackler and even better at getting into passing lanes and denying strikers service—according to WhoScored.com, he's averaged 2.7 and 2.6 interceptions per match over the last two seasons.
Whoever comes off the better in this early-season battle in the trenches will go a long way towards getting their team out of the Artemio Franchi with points to start the season.
Odds (via OddsShark)
Fiorentina win: 23/20
Milan win: 5/2
Draw: 23/10
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