Category Archives: ACF Fiorentina

Commisso: "Fantastic work from everyone, special fans"

ACF Fiorentina
Rocco Commisso made the following statement after Fiorentina’s 1-0 win over Udinese on Sunday afternoon.
“Well done everyone. Congratulations on the win and on the performance. We knew it was going to be a tough game but once again we left everything on the field and the results are there to see. The hard work being done by everyone – from Prade to Barone and Montella – is paying off and now we need to keep this up and keep our feet on the ground. Let’s use the international break to recharge our batteries before coming back to Florence. I also want to thank all the fans for supporting us always – their support was amazing today.”

Published: Sun, 06 Oct 2019 15:35:00 +0200

Source: Fiorentina Official website en.violachannel.tv

Five things you need to know about Fiorentina v Udinese

ACF Fiorentina

1) The first meeting between Fiorentina and Udinese in Serie A dates back to 14 January 1951. It finished 1-1 with Sperotto giving the Viola the lead (63) before Forlani levelled for the visitors (67).

Prior to that, there had only been one Fiorentina v Udinese fixture, in Serie B, on 21 December 1930 – the same season the Viola earned promotion to Serie A for the first time. Fiorentina won 3-2 thanks to goals by Moretti and Sardoz (2), while Fornarola and Modotti (penalty) scored for the Friulians.

2) Fiorentina recorded their first top-flight victory over Udinese on 15 February 1953, when Magnini struck an 85th-minute winner for Fulvio Bernardini's side.

The Viola won by the same scoreline the last time Udinese visited the Franchi, on 2 September 2018: Marco Benassi notched the only goal from Federico Chiesa's brilliant assist.

Of the 43 total matches played in Florence, the Viola have won 28, drawn 10 and lost five, scoring 93 and conceding 40.

Fiorentina have actually beaten Udinese at the Franchi in each of the last 11 seasons, starting with a 4-2 success on 22 November 2008 – their longest winning streak against any team in Serie A. The Viola's previous longest winning run against a single side was 10, against Avellino, between 1978/79 and 1987/88.

3) Udinese's visits to Florence have proved to be a good omen for Giancarlo Antognoni over the years. The former Viola skipper only scored three headed goals in his entire career but two of them came against Udinese at the Stadio Franchi: the first in Fiorentina 1-1 Udinese (Antognoni 77, Gerolin 84) on 1 March 1981 and the second in Fiorentina 1-0 Udinese (again scoring in the 77th minute) on 20 April 1986.

Antognoni's only other headed goal came in the middle against another team in black and white, Juventus, in a 3-3 draw on 27 November 1983.

4) Friuli-Venezia Giulia has produced many great players and coaches down the years – Dino Zoff, Tarcisio Burgnich, Fabio Capello, Enzo Bearzot and Nereo Rocco, to name but a few.

However, the most noteworthy as far as Fiorentina and Udinese are concerned is arguably Giuseppe Virgili, better know as “Pecos Bill” (due to his love for the comic books of the same name).

Virgili was born in Udine on 24 July 1935 and made his Serie A debut with his hometown club in 1953/54, but it wasn't until he joined Fiorentina that he really made a name for himself, scoring 21 goals in 32 games as the Viola's centre forward in the year of our first Scudetto triumph (1955/56). Virgili went on to play for Torino, Bari and Livorno before ending his career at Taranto in 1965/66.

“Pecos Bill” also played seven times for Italy, famously scoring a brace in a 3-0 win against Brazil on 25 April 1956. He died in Florence on 10 June 2016 at the age of 81.

5) One of the most memorable Fiorentina v Udinese fixtures is undoubtedly the Viola's 1-0 win on 4 October 1998, partly because it was the inimitable Edmundo who grabbed the winner in the 92nd minute, partly because the driving rain made the occasion all the more epic, and partly because it was the Viola's fourth straight victory at the start of the season after Empoli, Vicenza and AC Milan, meaning they topped the table on 12 points after four games, ahead of Inter (10), AC Milan and Juventus (9).

Fiorentina have only won their first four league matches one other time, in 1969/70, the year after our second Scudetto.

Published: Fri, 04 Oct 2019 11:33:00 +0200

Source: Fiorentina Official website en.violachannel.tv

Tremendous weekend for Rocco!

ACF Fiorentina

Columbia University alumnus and ACF Fiorentina and New York Cosmos Owner, Rocco B. Commisso, enjoyed a perfect weekend of soccer.

The action started Friday evening with the Columbia University Men’s team blanking Monmouth 2-0 in a home match at Rocco B. Commisso Stadium in New York City.

Saturday began with the Fiorentina Primavera hosting AS Roma’s Primavera side at the Artemio Franchi stadium. The youngsters got off to a flying start that resulted in a dominant 3-0 win.

The Columbia Women followed with a 2-0 road victory over Cornell in their Ivy League conference opener.

Saturday evening, Commisso made the 3-hour roundtrip drive to Long Island to watch his New York Cosmos defeat Chattanooga FC 3-1. With the victory, the Cosmos extended their 1st place lead in the National Premier Soccer League’s Members Cup to four points over Detroit City FC.

Fiorentina capped off Commisso’s perfect weekend by delivering a 3-1 victory against AC Milan at San Siro Stadium on Sunday. It was the second straight victory for the Viola who now find themselves in the top half of the Serie A standings after 6 games.

 

Published: Mon, 30 Sep 2019 16:05:00 +0200

Source: Fiorentina Official website en.violachannel.tv

Ten things you need to know about AC Milan v Fiorentina

ACF Fiorentina

1) Fiorentina’s first-ever Serie A match was away to AC Milan on 20 September 1931. It finished 1-1, with Magnozzi scoring for the Rossoneri and Prendato for the Viola.

2) Fiorentina have 13 pieces of silverware in the trophy cabinet (two league titles, six Coppa Italias, an Italian Super Cup, a Cup Winners’ Cup, a Mitropa Cup, an Italo-Italian Cup, a Grasshoppers Cup) and two of them came after beating AC Milan in the final. On 28 June 1975 the Viola triumphed 3-2 against the Rossoneri in the Coppa Italia final in Rome and on 25 August 1996 we beat the then-Italian champions 2-1 at the San Siro to claim the Super Cup.

3) Vincenzo Montella is, with Beppe Chiappella, one of just two Viola coaches to have beaten AC Milan at San Siro in Serie A two seasons in a row. Beppe achieved the feat in 1965-66 (2-1 with  Merlo netting twice) and 1966-67 (2-0, Hamrin and Brugnera) while Vincenzo recorded successive victories in 2012 (3-1) and 2013 (2-0). Adding in Delio Rossi’s success at the Meazza in 2011/12 makes the only time Fiorentina have beaten the Rossoneri on their own patch in three back-to-back seasons.

4) Montella’s record in six league meetings with AC Milan during his first spell in charge of the Viola, from 2012 to 2015, reads won three, drawn two and lost one. Two of those victories (3-1 on 11 November 2012 and 2-0 on 2 November 2013) came at the Meazza.

5) AC Milan and Fiorentina have a bit of history… in sharing goalkeepers, from Toros to Buffon, Fiori and Storari. There have also been legends such as Enrico Albertosi (who made his Viola debut in 1959 and helped the Rossoneri win their 10th Scudetto in 1979), Giovanni Galli (who came through the Viola youth ranks until 1986 then spent four years in Milan, winning in Italy and Europe), Francesco Toldo (who began in the AC Milan academy before playing for Fiorentina from 1993 to 2001) and Andrea Pazzagli (who grew up in Florence and joined Arrigo Sacchi’s side in 1989, going on to win a European Cup and two Intercontinental Cups).

6) There have been plenty of coaches to work at both clubs too. Austrian Herman Felsner was the first, followed by Giuseppe Bigogno, Guido Ara, the Hungarian Lajos Czeizler and the Argentine Luis Carniglia. In the ’70s there was Nils Liedholm, Gigi Radice and Nereo Rocco and in more recent times Arrigo Sacchi (Fiorentina Primavera coach in 1983/84), Fatih Terim, Giovanni Trapattoni, Sinisa Mihajlovic… and Vincenzo Montella, who sat in the Rossoneri dugout from June 2016 to November 2017.

7) The most recent AC Milan v Fiorentina fixture was on 22 December 2018. Federico Chiesa struck the winner from long range in the 73rd minute.

8) One of Fiorentina’s most impressive victories at the San Siro came on 20 September 1987, when Ramon Diaz and Roberto Baggio got the goals in a 2-0 success. That day Sven Goran Eriksson’s young, exciting Viola side inflicted the only defeat of the season (excluding the win awarded to Roma) on Sacchi’s Milan with the three Dutchmen, who would go on to claim their 11th league title, at the expense of Napoli.

9) 3-1 is Fiorentina’s biggest win margin against the Rossoneri in Milan, a result they have achieved three times: on 25 October 1942 (goals by Bollano, Suppi and Gei), 26 September 1998 (Batistuta hat-trick) and 11 November 2012 (Aquilani, Borja Valero and El Hamdaoui). Batistuta is the only Viola player to have scored a hat-trick away to AC Milan.

10) Finally, we couldn’t not mention Davide Astori. The Viola skipper was born in San Giovanni Bianco in the province of Bergamo and joined AC Milan at a young age before playing his trade for Cagliari, Roma and Fiorentina. Davide made 109 competitive appearances for the Viola and scored three goals. He also played 14 times and scored once for Italy.

Published: Sun, 29 Sep 2019 10:44:00 +0200

Source: Fiorentina Official website en.violachannel.tv

Montella: "AC Milan trip is a big test"

ACF Fiorentina

Vincenzo Montella is expecting a tough game when Fiorentina take on AC Milan at San Siro in Week 6 of Serie A on Sunday night.

“I think we’ve done better than the five points we have,” began the Viola coach, speaking in his pre-match press conference on Saturday. “It’s a big test against a side that is improving quickly compared with their first few games, especially in terms of their play. It will be a demanding match but it promises to be an exciting test.”

Montella was pragmatic when asked about how his side is dealing with an intense run of matches going into the clash at the Meazza.
“It’s our third game in a short period of time but thankfully that’s the case for AC Milan too,” he said. “I think they’ve made a lot of changes over the course of these games. We’re on even footing in that regard. When you’re playing three games a week, especially at the start of the season, I don’t worry about the fitness because the players are able to recover. You have more time to recover at the start. It’s harder for the players that haven’t played much or at all. The mentality is the key: how much you’re able to put into the game. That’s the hardest thing and it’s what shows the different in the level of the players.”
The Viola boss called on his side to show more maturity during matches in order to ensure they don’t let results slip.
“We have a lot of room for improvement, particularly the way we manage matches at specific periods in the game,” he said. “If we want to achieve the ambitious targets we’ve set ourselves, we need to manage games better.”
There was praise for Federico Chiesa, who has been in blistering form in recent matches.
“Federico has been amazing in the last two games,” said Montella. “He’s put in top performances both technically and physically despite them being close together and very demanding. That shows that he can maintain that level over 38 games. That’s what we want and we hope that he can achieve that. He has everything in place to be a top player in Europe.”
Another player attracting attention is Gaetano Castrovilli, but Montella urged the youngster to keep his head down and focusing on building on his early-season form.
“Castrovilli is improving and showing consistency, but he still needs to get better,” he said. “Given the type of player he is, he doesn’t get enough shots away or provide enough assists. He has room for improvement and plenty of objectives to strive for.”

Published: Sun, 29 Sep 2019 10:29:00 +0200

Source: Fiorentina Official website en.violachannel.tv