Ten things you need to know about Fiorentina v Roma

Fiorentina take on Roma at the Stadio Artemio Franchi on Friday night as they look to build on the 1-1 draw with league leaders Inter last time out. Take a look at our list of ten key stats on the game ahead of the Week 17 clash…

1.    Friday will be the 90th time Fiorentina and Roma have faced off in domestic competitions in Florence. In the past 89 meetings in Serie A, the 1945/46 Divisione Nazionale championship and the Coppa Italia, Fiorentina have won 37, drawn 35 and lost just 17. There was also one meeting in Europe – the first leg of the Europa League Round of 16 tie on 12 March 2015 – which finished in a 1-1 draw after goals from Mario Gomez and Seydou Keita. Fiorentina have scored 134 goals and conceded 87 in home matches against Roma.

2.    The first Fiorentina v Roma fixture in Serie A took place on 22 November 1931 and finished in a 3-1 win for the Viola, who were coached by the Austrian Hermann Felsner. Rodolfo Volk actually put Roma ahead on the night, but goals from Raffaele Rivolo, Gastone Prendato and Pedro Petrone turned things around for Fiorentina.
3.    On the subject of Volk, it’s worth briefly recapping his career. Born in Fiume in 1906, he was sent to Florence on military service in 1926. Volk was quickly signed up by Fiorentina, but as a conscript he was forced to play under a pseudonym: Bolteni. He played in 14 of the 18 first division league games in that 1926/27 season, scoring 11 goals along the way to become the first Viola player to win the league’s top scorer gong. Once his military service was over, Volk moved to Roma, scoring his first goal for the club against Fiorentina, who had just been promoted to Serie A.
4.    Fiorentina’s 4-1 win over Roma on 2 October 1949 will always be remembered for a four-goal haul from Alberto Galassi. Born in Todi in 1922, Galassi was famed for his speed – he could run 100 metres in 11 seconds flat. Galassi scored an impressive 24 goals in 37 appearances that season, coming in fifth in the top-scorer charts. Over the course of his five seasons with the Viola, Galassi scored 63 goals in 137 matches.
5.    Giancarlo Antognoni must surely remember Fiorentina’s 3-1 win over Roma on 5 April 1980 with a rye smile. After bagging a quickfire brace with goals in the third and 16th minutes, both of which came from free-kicks on the edge of the box, Antognini then saw his third goal – a long-range effort – marked down as a Sergio Santarini own-goal after the ball took a deflection off the Roma man on its way in. The strict rules on own-goals back then robbed Antognini of what would have been his only career hat-trick!
6.    The Roma coach that day was Nils Liedholm – the same man who, during his time as Fiorentina boss, handed Antognini his Serie A debut away in a 2-1 away win at Verona on 15 October 1972. Liedholm would go on to win the Scudetto title with Roma in 1983.
7.    Both title-winning Fiorentina coaches have connections to Roma and Rome. The first was Fulvio Bernardini, who led the Viola to Scudetto glory in 1956. Bernardini was born in Rome, spent nine seasons as a player at Roma and coached the Giallorossi in the 1949/50 season, though he didn’t make it to the end of the campaign. Bruno Pesaola was the man in charge when Fiorentina won their second Scudetto in 1969 – and he too spent time playing for Roma, between 1947 and 1950. Also worthy of a mention in this section is Giancarlo De Sisti, the captain of Fiorentina’s title-winning side in 1969. De Sisti was born in Rome and developed as a player with the Giallorossi, before finishing his career there in 1979. De Sisti was also the coach of Fiorentina side that finished second in the 1981/82 season, when the Viola were robbed of title glory after a dubious refereeing decision on the final day. Last but certainly not least, current Fiorentina boss was part of the Roma side that won the Scudetto in 2001.
8.    You can’t talk about Fiorentina and Roma without talking about Gabriel Omar Batistuta. The Argentine spent nine years at Fiorentina, winning the Coppa Italia and the Italian Super Cup in 1996, and is still the club’s top scorer in the league (168 goals in 269 games, including the season in Serie B in 1993/94). Batistuta then had two and a half seasons with the Giallorossi (as well as spending six months at Inter from January 2003), winning the Scudetto and the Italian Super Cup in 2001 and scoring a total of 33 goals in 87 appearances. Batistuta first trip back to the Franchi as an opponent came on Monday 9 April 2001, when Fiorentina got the better of Roma in a 3-1 win, with Enrico Chiesa stealing the headlines with a fine brace.
9.    Fiorentina’s 3-0 win over Roma on 4 December 2011 was memorable for another reason. The Giallorossi – coached by Luis Enrique, who would go on to win it all with Barcelona – ended the game with eight men after red cards were shown to Juan (16 minutes), Fernando Gago (76 minutes) and Bojan Krkic (85 minutes). Stevan Jovetic (penalty), Alessandro Gamberini and Santiago Silva (penalty) got the goals for Fiorentina that day.
10.    The most recent Fiorentina v Roma fixture in Serie A took place on 3 November 2018, finishing in a 1-1 draw after Alessandro Florenzi’s last goal cancelled out Jordan Veretout’s 33rd-minute penalty. Fiorentina last beat Roma in Serie A in Florence on 18 September 2016, when Milan Badelj found then net on 82 minutes. And, of course, we can’t finish this article without mentioning the stunning 7-1 win over Roma in the Coppa Italia quarter-finals on 30 January 2019. Federico Chiesa scored a hat-trick and Giovanni Simeone grabbed a brace, while goals from Luis Muriel and Marco Benassi completed the rout of Roma, for whom Aleksandar Kolarov scored the consolation goal.

Published: Wed, 18 Dec 2019 18:04:00 +0100

Source: Fiorentina Official website en.violachannel.tv