Fiorentina host Lecce in Week 14 of Serie A on Saturday night – and we’ve put together this list of five key stats on the fixture to get you in the mood for kick-off.
1. Fiorentina v Lecce is one of the newest Serie A clashes, mainly because Lecce only won promotion to the top division for the first time in the 1985/86 season. The first Fiorentina v Lecce clash in Serie A took place on 20 September 1985, ending in a 3-1 win for the Viola courtesy of goals from Paolo Monelli (2) and Daniel Passarella (penalty). Marino Palese got the goal for Lecce. Overall, Fiorentina have a record of nine wins, four draws and three defeats from 16 matches against Lecce – including two Serie B games and one in the Coppa Italia.
2. Staying on the subject of that 3-1 win over Lecce on 20 September 1985, playing in goal for Fiorentina that day was Paolo Conti – the former Roma, Verona, Sampdoria and Bari keeper who spent four seasons with the Viola and was the back-up to starting goalie Giovanni Galli that season. Conti only made two league appearances for the Viola: one in the 3-1 over Lecce and the other in the 2-0 home win against AC Milan the week previously. Galli had picked up a suspension in Week 2, but Conti stepped up to fill the first-choice keeper’s shoes with aplomb – and it’s no coincidence that Conti picked up a total of seven caps for the Italian national team between 1977 and 1979, and even went to the 1978 World Cup in Argentina as the back-up to Dino Zoff.
3. Current Lecce boss Fabio Liverani spent two seasons at Fiorentina during his playing career. He made 77 appearances in all competitions for the Viola between 2006 and 2008, scoring two goals along the way. The first came in a 4-0 home win over Messina on 23 December 2006, with the other one scored in the 2-1 win over Rosenborg in the second leg of the UEFA Cup Round of 32 tie on 21 February 2008. The competition would be the setting for a painful end to Liverani’s Fiorentina career, as he missed a decisive penalty in the shoot-out against Glasgow Rangers in the semi-finals later that season. Lecce’s Jacopo Petriccione, Khouma Babacar and Simone Lo Faso have all played for Fiorentina in the past too.
4. Fiorentina’s biggest win over Lecce was the 5-0 victory on 9 November 1997. In the dugout for Lecce that day was none other than future Viola boss Cesare Prandelli, who was later replaced by Nedo Sonetti. Gabriel Batistuta and Lulu Oliveira both scored two apiece in the game: Batistuta had already scored seven goals in the first seven rounds of the season, while for Oliveira the goals were the first of 15 he would score that season. The other goalscorer that day was Lecce’s Maurizio Rossi, who had the misfortune of scoring an own goal. Coincidently, Rossi started out his professional career at Rondinella Marzocco, the second team in Florence.
5. While Fiorentina do have the better of the record between the two teams at the Franchi, the Viola have struggled on each of the last three occasions that Lecce have travelled to Florence. Lecce ran out 2-1 winners on 11 January 2009, with Guillermo Giacomazzi and Jose Ignacio Castillo scoring for the visitors (Felipe Melo netted for Fiorentina). Just over two years later, on 23 January 2011, Fiorentina were held to a 1-1 draw by Lecce in Week 21 of Serie A: David Di Michele scored for Lecce (as well as missing a penalty in the first half), while Alberto Gilardino equalised for the Viola after the break. Most recently, Lecce pulled off a 1-0 win at the Franchi in the 2011/12 season, with Di Michele again finding the net – although the result wasn’t enough to prevent Lecce from being relegated at the end of the year.
Published: Thu, 28 Nov 2019 16:40:00 +0100
Source: Fiorentina Official website en.violachannel.tv