Fiorentina vs Lazio prediction: ITALY: Serie A betting tips on match 2022-10-09 18:45.
Last week’s 1-0 defeat away to Atalanta left Fiorentina with just nine points to their name from their opening eight league matches (W2, D3, L3), amid mounting pressure on manager Vincenzo Italiano. He and his side alleviated some of that pressure on Thursday night though with an impressive 3-0 Europa League victory away to Hearts, meaning Fiorentina have now won two of their last three competitive matches ‘to nil’.
It’s blanks at the other end that have often been an issue for the Viola in the league this season, a point captured by the fact no other Serie A (SA) team has failed to score on more occasions (four). They’ll hope the three they bagged on Thursday night can be a sign of things to come, yet having failed to score in both H2H meetings with Lazio last season (L2) which included a 3-0 defeat at this venue, there’s no guarantee Fiorentina will buck that blunt attacking trend here.
That’s especially true when you take into account Lazio’s own impressive defensive record this season, conceding just five SA goals so far, only one of which has come in an away game. Another victory with an accompanying clean sheet here would mark the first time Lazio have won four straight league matches without conceding since March 2015. A goalless draw away to Sturm Graz on Thursday night was perhaps the ideal preparation to secure that feat then from an attacking point of view.
That stalemate meant the Biancocelesti have only lost one of their last five competitive away matches, yet draws have dominated that run (W1, D3, L1), leaving Lazio aiming for all three points here if they’re to maintain or even close the three-point gap between themselves and the top of the SA table coming into the round.
Players to watch: Coach Italiano called it a “new beginning” for Luka Jović on Thursday after he scored his first goal in Europe for over three years. However Italiano would have quickly switched his attention to drawing up a plan to stop Lazio’s Sergej Milinković-Savić who has contributed to eight league goals so far (G3, A5), leaving Manchester City’s Kevin De Bruyne as the only midfielder across Europe’s big five leagues to register more.
Hot stat: Three of Fiorentina’s last five competitive matches produced a red card, as did the last H2H clash between these two in February.