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FIORENTINA

League position: 9th
Head coach: Vincenzo Italiano
Serie A top scorer: Giacomo Bonaventura, Arthur Cabral, Luka Jovic (all three)

RECENT FORM

ROMA: D D W D W
FIORENTINA: W L D W W

Paulo Dybala’s second half strike saw the Giallorossi past Genoa and into the quarter-finals of the Coppa Italia in midweek to make it two wins and a stirring comeback draw with AC Milan from their three games back from the winter break.

A third win of 2023 on Sunday could lift them above Inter, who currently sit fourth, and into the Champions League spots.

La Viola also made sure of a place in the last eight of the cup this week as Antonin Barak’s goal was enough to see off Sampdoria.

Italiano’s side go into Matchday 18 of the 2022-23 campaign in ninth - eight points behind Roma and with the risk of seeing their own European hopes dealt a significant blow if they leave the Stadio Olimpico without anything to show for their trip to the capital.

Possible Fiorentina line-up

(4-2-3-1)

Gollini; Dodo, Milenkovic, Igor, Biraghi; Duncan, Amrabat; Ikone, Bonaventura, Kouame; Jovic

LAST MEETING

DANGER MAN
Giacomo Bonaventura

Fiorentina have suffered on the injury front this season, with the likes of Cabral, Rolando Mandragora, Riccardo Sottil and Pietro Terracciano all still expected to be absent on Sunday.

The returns of Jovic and Sofyan Amrabat to the starting XI on Thursday were very much welcome, while Nicolas Gonzalez is pushing for a start after two substitute appearances on the bounce that included the Argentine popping up with a 91st-minute winner over Sassuolo on Matchday 17.

Amongst this upheaval, one constant Italiano has been able to rely on is Italy international Bonaventura.

Alongside Cabral and Jovic, the 33-year-old is the team’s joint top-scorer from the tip of Italiano’s midfield in the league this term and he has missed just three Serie A matches.

MATCH STATS

Having begun the campaign with three successive home victories in all competitions (scoring 10 times and conceding none), Roma have secured the first back-to-back wins since after registering 1-0 victories over Bologna and Genoa.

Fiorentina may have claimed a 2-0 win the last time these two sides met but Roma had enjoyed a run of five victories on the bounce over their Tuscan opponents prior to that defeat.

Roma are four unbeaten at home to Fiorentina (W3, D1) in Serie A and their most recent defeat (a 2-0 loss in April 2018) is one of only two top-flight slip ups as hosts in this fixture since February 1992. Their record since then stands at: P27, W20, D5, L2.

La Viola have struggled on the road this season and collected just eight points (W2, D2, L4) out of a possible 24.

PLAYER STATS

• Gabriel Batistuta and Abel Balbo are two famous players to have represented each of these two teams and they both became Italian champions with Roma in the 2000-01 campaign.
  
• Francesco Totti (13 goals) is this fixture’s highest scorer across previous league meetings, ahead of Batistuta on 10.
  
• Curiously, all five of Abraham’s total goals this season have come away from home.
  
• Just three players have more Serie A assists than Roma skipper Lorenzo Pellegrini (five) this season; Sergej Milinkovic-Savic (seven), Mario Rui and Gerard Deulofeu (both six).

WHAT THEY SAID

"We're putting together good performances, we create a lot and I'm sure we'll find a way to score more goals."

- Italiano on wanting more goals after the cup win over Sampdoria