After saying farewell to Petkovic at the beginning of the new year, Lazio are once again earning points and playing with consistency with Edoardo Reja on the bench. With the Friulian coach back at the helm of the team he left in the summer of 2012, the Biancocelesti have yet to taste defeat

Technical and tactical drills, a training match and shooting practice for the Giallorossi. Physiotherapy for Dodò and Balzaretti, the latter also working in the gym

A recent report has revealed that the rapidly rising number of fans using Fiorentina’s official social networking sites has pushed the club up into sixth place in the overall rankings for Italian football clubs.

The article on Calciomercato.it explains: “…Fiorentina has been the big surprise in recent months and sits in sixth place both on ‘FB’ and Twitter behind the so-called ‘big clubs’ and ahead of Lazio.”

The website analysed and compared figures relating to the 20 Serie A clubs’ official Facebook and Twitter accounts. AC Milan leads the way by quite some margin in this special league table.

Fiorentina’s Facebook page currently has 337,629 fans, a decent number in itself but even more impressive considering its expansion rate: only 10 months ago, back in April 2013, fiorentinaofficial had less than 20,000 likes. In the last month alone, the number has rocketed by 40% – a bigger percentage than for any other Serie A club.

Numbers alone only tell half the story of course. Our Facebook page has also seen a high level of interaction from users commenting on our posts. Two of the most popular in February were the birthday wishes for Giuseppe Rossi and Mario Gomez‘s return to training with the team, both of which were shared and posted by the players themselves on their own profiles, thus increasing interaction with fans from Germany and the States.

Meanwhile, Fiorentina’s Twitter account now has 93,200 followers. Here too there has been a rapid increase over the last few months, making our official account the sixth most popular among football clubs in Italy.

We’re proud of the results we’ve managed to achieve as they show the fans appreciate what we’re doing on Fiorentina’s social networking sites.

Keep liking and following us!

Vincenzo Montella has named a 21-man squad for tomorrow’s Serie A clash with Atalanta, to be played at the Stadio Franchi at 18:00.

Here’s the list in alphabetical order:

Anderson, Borja Valero, Bakic, Compper, Cuadrado, Diakite, Fernandez, Ilicic, Joaquin, Lupatelli, Matri, Neto, Pasqual, Pizarro, Rodriguez, Roncaglia, Rosati, Ryder, Savic, Vargas, Wolski.

Vincenzo Montella held his usual pre-match press conference today, ahead of tomorrow’s match against Atalanta.

Have Fiorentina suffered a dip in form in February?
“There are certain areas of the pitch where we’ve been reduced to the bare bones and I kind of expected that. But it’s in times like this that great teams have to come to the fore.”

Is Cuadrado off colour?
“He’s a hard-working lad but he’s had a few minor physical problems. It’s not easy to play at the same level constantly.”

Atalanta?
“A match laden with traps. Very tricky. This is a crucial stage of the season for us.”

Gomez?
“He’s slowly starting to train with the rest of the team again, avoiding contact for now. He’s not ready yet.”

The Primavera team’s semi-final exploit?
“Winning is always good. I can see an improvement in the lads when they join up with the first team.”