1 – The first-ever meeting between Fiorentina and Sampdoria took place on 23 February 1947 and ended in a 2-1 win for the Viola courtesy of goals from Piero Suppi and Otello Badiali. However, in the years before the Second World War, the Ligurians had played Fiorentina under different names: Dominante, Liguria and Sampierdanerese. Sampdoria in their current form were born on 12 August 1946, after the merger of Sampierdanerese and Andrea Doria.

2 – Fiorentina and Sampdoria have faced off 67 times in Florence in the league and the Coppa Italia. The Viola have far and away the best record, with 34 wins, 24 draws and just nine defeats. Fiorentina have scored 111 goals in those 67 games, with Sampdoria managing just 57. The last meeting of the two sides in Florence was back on 20 January 2019, with the match finishing in a 3-3 draw. Luis Muriel (2) and German Pezzella got the goals for the Viola, with Fabio Quagliarella (2) and Gaston Ramirez scoring for Samp.

3 – The home match against Sampdoria brings back memories of one of the most painful memories in Fiorentina history: the injury sustained by Giancarlo Antognoni after an unfortunate clash with Luca Pellegrini on 12 February 1984. Fiorentina were third in the table at the time, pushing Torino and Juventus hard in the race for Scudetto glory. The game had started well, with Antognoni giving the Viola the lead with a free-kick inside 20 minutes. The injury happened soon afterwards: a cross from the right saw Antognoni and Pellegrini both go for the ball, with the Fiorentina captain coming off by far the worst. He suffered a broken tibia and fibula and would miss 21 months of football, before making his return in a 0-0 home draw with Bari on 24 November 1984.

4 – Fiorentina v Sampdoria is the fixture in which Gabriel Batistuta set the record for the most goals in consecutive games at the start of a Serie A season. The record was previously held by Bologna’s Ezio Pascutti, who in the 1962/63 season scored in each of the first ten games of the season, bagging a total of 12 goals. Fast forward to the 1993/94 season: Batistuta had already scored against Cagliari, Genoa, Cremonese (2), Inter, Lazio, Reggiana, Padova, Brescia, Bari and Napoli (2), for a total of 12 goals in ten games – just like Pascutti. He needed just one more goal in the next game – against Sampdoria on 27 November 1994 – to beat Pascutti’s record. A David Platt penalty on 39 minutes gave Samp the lead in Florence and looked set to spoil Bati’s party, but on the hour mark the Viola won a penalty and up stepped Batistuta to send Walter Zenga the wrong way. The record now belonged to Bati: 13 goals in 11 consecutive games.

5 – Wednesday’s game won’t be just another match for Viola boss Vincenzo Montella. During his playing days, Montella spent four seasons at Sampdoria, between 1996 and 1999 and again in 2007/08. Montella also returned to Samp after becoming a manager, replacing Walter Zenga in Week 12 of the 2015/16 campaign, during which Doria lost 2-0 at home to Fiorentina. As a player, Montella scored six goals for Samp against Fiorentina: five at Marassi, one at the Franchi. The goal in Florence came on 4 January 1988, with a 78th-minute strike from Montella cancelling out Batistuta’s early opener. Incidentally, that game also saw Francesco Toldo save a Montella penalty on 38 minutes.

Museo Fiorentina for Violachannel

Published: Tue, 24 Sep 2019 11:08:00 +0200

Source: Fiorentina Official website en.violachannel.tv