THE SEASON STARTS NOW – Fiorentina vs AC Milan – Sunday 23 August 2015

Facts and stats for Sunday’s Serie A opener Fiorentina-Milan.

 

MILAN – It’s been 15 years since Fiorentina go into the opening round of the Serie A season with a new coach without any previous experiences in Serie A. This Sunday, Paulo Sousa follows in the footsteps of Fatih Terim in the opening day of the 2000/01 season when he oversees his first ever match in the Italian top FLIGHT.

Carlos Bacca and company will be out to end Fiorentina’s record in defence at home. The Tuscan side haven’t conceded a goal at home in 243 minutes and the last player to find the back of the net against the Viola was Sevilla’s Carrico in the Europa League on the 14th of May earlier this year.

Sunday represents the fifth time that Milan meet Fiorentina on the opening round of the Serie A season. The first time was on the 20th of September 1931. At the San Siro, the two teams played out a 1-1 draw. Magnozzi opened the scoring for the hosts before Prendato scored the equaliser for the Viola. The next occasion was two years later, the 10th of September 1933, with the Tuscan side running out 1-0 WINNERS in Florence. Perazzolo was on TARGET for Fiorentina. On round 1 on the 11th of September 1977 in Florence the score was 1-1 with Rossinelli (Fiorentina) and Calloni (Milan) on the score-sheet. Finally, the last meeting came in 1988/89 with Milan running out 4-0 winners at the San Siro.

This weekend will be Sinisa Mihajlovic’s fourth time as a coach on the opening round of the Serie A season. In his previous 3, he is unbeaten: 1 WIN(Fiorentina-Bologna 2-0, 2011/12) and 2 draws (Fiorentina-Napoli 1-1, 2010/11 and Palermo-Sampdoria 1-1, 2014/15).

 

Serie A tickets