Fiorentina travel to Torino in Week 15 of Serie A on Sunday as Vincenzo Montella’s side look to build on their midweek Coppa Italia victory by getting back to winning ways in the league.
Ahead of the 15:00 CET kick-off at the Stadio Olimpico, we’ve picked out ten key stats you need to know about the match.
1. Fiorentina have faced off against Torino in Turin on 77 occasions, including one match in Serie B and six Coppa Italia ties. As things stand, Fiorentina’s record reads 14 defeats, 23 draws and 40 wins, with the Viola scoring 78 goals to the Granata’s 122. There have been 70 meetings between the two sides in Turin in Serie A, with Fiorentina winning 13, drawing 19 and losing 38 of those games. The first Torino v Fiorentina match in Serie A took place on 13 March 1932 and finished in a 1-0 win for the home side, with Onesto Silano scoring the goal. In the Fiorentina side that day was Pedro Petrone, who would go on to finish the season as joint top-scorer (alongside Bologna’s Angelo Schiavio) on 25 goals.
2. Fiorentina only managed to beat Torino (in Turin) at the 20th time of asking. It was 6 January 1955, at the legendary Stadio Filadelfia, when Fiorentina secured a 1-0 win courtesy of a goal from Beppe Virgili. In the previous 19 games, Fiorentina had lost 15 and drawn the other four.
3. Fiorentina’s 6-0 win away at Torino on 11 January 1959 remains one of the Viola’s biggest ever away wins in the league, with Kurt Hamrin, Ramon Lojacono, Miguel Montuori and Beppe Chiappella all getting on the scoresheet. Fiorentina – coached by Hungarian boss Lajos Czeizler – would end that 1958/59 season in second place, behind AC Milan. The Viola also set the record for the most goals scored (95) in an 18-team league – a record that remains unbeaten to this day.
4. One of the greatest players to play for both Torino and Fiorentina is undoubtedly Romeo Menti. The Vincenza-born striker had two spells at Fiorentina: from 1938 to 1941, during which time he won the 1940 Coppa Italia, and again in the 1945/46 season. Menti also had two spells at Torino: from 1941 to 1943 and from 1946 to 1949. Sadly, Menti was one of those whose lives were claimed in the Superga disaster on 4 May 1949. Menti’s body was one of the first to be identified among the wreckage – from a Fiorentina pin that he still wore on his breast, revealing the deep bond he still felt for the Viola.
5. There have been plenty more – too many to name here – players to turn out for both Torino and Fiorentina. Three of the most notable were Francesco Rosetta, Armando Segato and Beppe Virgili, who starred in Fiorentina’s first Scudetto win in 1956. Ciccio Graziani and Eraldo Pecci won the league with Luigi Radice’s Torino and very nearly did the same with Giancarlo De Sisti’s Fiorentina. Alberto Orlando spent just one season with both teams, but won the top-scorer gong with Fiorentina in 1965. There have been several coaches to take charge of both sides too, like Emiliano Mondonico, Gigi Radice, Nereo Rocco, Luigi Ferrero and Aldo Agroppi, a Torino legend in the early 1970s and the Fiorentina boss in the 1985/86 and 1992/93 seasons.
6. Another important Fiorentina win over Torino in Turin came on 18 May 2008, this time at the Stadio Olimpico. The 1-0 win – secured thanks to a goal from Pablo Daniel Osvaldo – meant Cesare Prandelli’s Fiorentina side qualified for the Champions League qualifiers for the very first time. The three points meant Fiorentina just pipped AC Milan to the last spot, thanks in no small part to the Argentine striker’s overhead kick 13 minutes from time.
7. Fiorentina’s last away win over Torino – on 18 March 2018 – was a significant one too. Jordan Veretout gave the Viola the lead on 59 minutes, and though Andrea Belotti equalised four minutes from the 90, Cyril Thereau converted a penalty in the fourth minute of added time to seal the win for Fiorentina (Veretout had already seen a penalty saved by Torino shot-stopped Salvatore Sirigu. Aside from the result, the match was the first time Fiorentina had won an away game since the death of Davide Astori, and came as part of an incredible six-game winning streak the Viola put together in the wake of the tragedy.
8. In the interests of balance, we should remember a 4-3 win for Torino back on Easter Sunday, 18 April 1976. Just one point separated Torino and Juventus at the top of the table, with the Bianconeri facing a tough away trip to Naples. Fiorentina were floating in mid-table, apparently with nothing to play for, occupying nothing more than the role of sparring partner. Yet the Stadio Comunale would witness a hotly contested game with action aplenty. Torino twice took the lead and were twice pegged back by Fiorentina, eventually made it 4-2 in the second half but then found themselves dragged back into a contest once Claudio Desolati made it 4-3 with ten minutes to play. Torino hung on, while Juve drew 1-1 with Napoli, giving the Granata a two-point lead which would prove enough for Scudetto glory.
9. The partnership between the supporters of Torino and Fiorentina is one of the strongest and longest lasting of its kind. It dates back to the early 1970s – Ultras Viola was set up in 1973 – and is centred around the two teams’ mutual rival: Juventus. Among the most well-known proponents of the partnership on the Fiorentina side were Stefano “Pompa” Biagini and Carlo Maria “Pampa” Pampaloni.
10. The last Torino v Fiorentina fixture ended in a 1-1 draw, with Marco Benassi scoring for the Viola and the Granata’s goal coming courtesy of an Alban Lafont own goal. Benassi is another player to have turned out for both sides, while Torino back-up keeper Antonio Rosati and defender Lorenzo De Silvestri have both represented Fiorentina in the past.
Published: Thu, 05 Dec 2019 17:15:00 +0100
Source: Fiorentina Official website en.violachannel.tv