Club Football Friendly: Match Preview Valencia versus Fiorentina
Valencia are all set to take on Fiorentina in an all action encounter on 18th of August, 2010. Valencia are a Spanish based club football side, who finished third in last season’s Spanish football league season. Fiorentina are based in the famous city of Florence in Italy and they finished the Serie A season with an eleventh placed spot.
Both the clubs are well known for their European heritage as; Valencia finished as runners up in the UEFA Champions League in the 1999-2000 as well as the 2000-2001 club football seasons. Fiorentina on the other hand, finished as runners up in the European cup in 1957. Valencia, who are also known as Los Che in Spanish, won the Spanish league title under Rafael Benitez in the 2003-2004 season. Los Che’s opponents, the Viola won the Serie A league title back in the 1968-1969 season.
Valencia have lost two of their best football players in this summer transfer window, in shape of David Villa and David Silva. Villa was sold by Valencia to Barcelona in the Spanish football league whereas Silva parted ways with the club as he sought his future with Manchester City in the English Premier League.
Both the teams will be looking to use this friendly match as an opportunity to try out new tactics for the up-coming league seasons, which start off in Spain and Italy on 28th of August, 2010. Valencia will be hoping that some of their other squad players can step up and fill the void that is left by Villa and Silva’s absence. Fiorentina on the other hand will be looking to gain some pre-season fitness through this match between these two competitive sides.
Valencia most probably will look towards the likes of Juan Mata and Hernandez to pull the strings upfront and in midfield. Conversely, the Viola will depend upon their striker Gilardinho to get themselves some crucial goals before the season gets under way. It is quite possible that some of Valencia’s stars, who were a part of the Spanish national team squad will be left out of the squad for this match, same goes for Fiorentina as some of their players such as Mario Bollati were members of their respective national team squads for the World Cup.
Valencia will be favorites to win this match as Fiorentina’s coach Sinisa Mihajlovic, has already showered praise on the Spanish club outfit. He spoke to Calcioblog.it and said that, he expects Valencia to keep possession and be dangerous when attacking towards the Fiorentina goal. He also added that, he will ask his defense to keep the highest levels of concentration during the match. The Serbian manager went onto say that, he is confident that the Viola will not lose their friendly match against Valencia because they are capable of answering any questions asked off them on the football field.
However, it is important to note that out of their last three friendly matches so far in the pre-season, Valencia have only managed to win one. Their sole win came against the Asian club Al-Hilal by a score line of two goals to nil. Los Che’s lost their friendly matches against Marseille and Celje. The Italian giants, Fiorentina come to this match with a good run of form as they have lost their only one pre-season match so far against Tottenham Hotspurs of the English Premier League.
Fiorentina are without their young midfielders, Stevan Jovetic and Adem Ljajic but a possible debut is on the cards for their newest signing Gaetano D'Agostino. D’Agostino is expected to start in a playmakers role to compensate for the losses of Stevan and Ljajic. Fiorentina’s coach during his interview with the Italian website, also hinted at Agonstino’s inclusion into the starting lineup.
Tags: