Fiorentina vs Hellas Verona preview - Montella feeling good about Viola
Posted Sunday, April 19, 2015 by PA
The feel-good factor is back for Fiorentina as they prepare to face Hellas Verona in Tuscany on Monday.
One of the surprise packages of the season, the Viola saw their positive run come to an end when they fell to a 3-0 home defeat to Juventus to crash out of the Coppa Italia at the semi-final stage.
Alarm bells started ringing several days later at Napoli when Vincenzo Montella's team played with what the head voach described as "a lack of confidence" and suffered a 3-0 defeat.
However, following a battling performance that saw Fiorentina come from behind to draw 1-1 at Dynamo Kiev in Thursday's Europa League quarter-final first leg, Montella said to the Italian press: "I really liked my team.
"They played with great pride and created chances.
"The team showed it had a soul.
"This is a very important result for us ahead of the return leg in Florence."
Montella is expected to rest winger Mohamed Salah and striker Mario Gomez on Monday in view of Thursday's return leg against Dinamo.
Khouma Babacar and Alessandro Diamanti are set to lead Fiorentina's attack against Hellas.
The Viola are fifth in Serie A, level on 49 points with Sampdoria, who are sixth.
Hellas travel to Florence looking to halt a three-match winless run, with last weekend's 3-0 defeat to Inter Milan dropping the Verona outfit to 16th place, 11 points clear of the drop zone.
Former Fiorentina striker Luca Toni, who will lead Hellas' attack on Monday, said: "There are still eight games remaining and we can achieve our aim.
"We have to put the Inter defeat behind us and focus on a difficult game in Florence.
"We want to secure our Serie A status as soon as possible in order to cap another good season."
Hellas, coached by Andrea Mandorlini, have been struggling in defence, with eight goals conceded in their last three league games.
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