Fiorentina’s start of the season in Serie A could have been better. The “Violas” are currently at 11th position with 2W-2D-1L. It’s not necessarily bad, but it could be a lot better. The main problem I see for Fiorentina is scoring goals. So far in Serie A, Fiorentina scored only 5 goals in the opening 5 matches. Of course they managed to keep a clean sheet 4 times so far, but if they cannot score a goal, it does not mean much, as they cannot finish at the top of the table with 80% of the matches ending in a draw. In their domestic league, there are only 2 teams with less goals than them, and it’s Empoli (2 goals) and Palermo (3 goals). Both of the teams are in the relegation zone, and quite frankly teams that are unable to score goals belong there. I am not saying Fiorentina is a candidate to be relegated as they have a quality team, I just believe they have not found the right rhythm yet.
Today Fiorentina will welcome Qarabag, a team from Azerbaijan. Qarabag is currently at 3rd position in their domestic league (4W-1D-1L) with 13 points. The team from Azerbaijan knocked out Dudelange , but then lost to Viktoria Plzen which closed the gates to the Champions League. The next opponent was Goteborg in Europa League qualifications, which was not strong enough for Qarabag (3:1 aggregate). Their Europa League campaign started with a draw against Slovan Liberec (2:2). Despite Qarabag having 63% possession throughout the match, it could easily end in a loss for them (1:2), but with some luck, Sadiqov equalized in 90’+4 for 2:2. Similar as Fiorentina, Qarabag has failed to score goals, especially on the road. 5 goals in 6 away fixtures is not something to be proud of.
VERDICT
This will be the first time these two teams meet each other, so we cannot take into consideration previous match-ups. But there is one thing we know for sure, both teams struggle to produce goals and this may be seen in the upcoming match. With that in mind, I can not see more than 2.5 goals today at Stadio Artemio Franchi.
Prediction: Under 2.5 goals
Odds: 1.62 Pinnacle
