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Following their promotion back to Serie A last season, the famous and storied club of Parma begin the 2024/25 campaign against a new look Fiorentina side that have been the nearly men of Italian and European football in the last few years.
KICK-OFF DATE/TIME: Saturday 17th August, 2024 - UK – 5:30pm / US ET – 12:30pm / US PT – 9:30am
HOW TO WATCH ON TV: UK – TNT Sports OR Not televised / US – Select matches will be televised on CBS Sports so it is worth checking their schedule
HOW TO WATCH ONLINE: UK – discovery+ OR Cannot be streamed / US – Paramount+
PARMA PREVIEW: RESTORING PARMA’S PRIDE
The American ownership of Parma began their tenure with quite significant ambitions and that saw them bring in some big names, such as Gianluigi Buffon and Franco Vazquez, but they have had to be very patient to finally find some success, which they eventually did with automatic promotion last season.
Over the summer, they have been less gung-ho in the transfer market but have still brought in some very interesting players with Japanese goalkeeper Zion Suzuki arriving from Sint-Truiden. This week has seen two attackers arrive, too, with the excellent Pontus Almqvist and exciting Matteo Cancellieri arriving.
FIORENTINA PREVIEW: GOING ONE BETTER
In the last two seasons, Fiorentina have reached three cup finals and have lost all three with West Ham United and Olympiakos defeating them in the UEFA Europa Conference League, as well as Inter beating them in the 2022/23 Coppa Italia final. I Viola have had to tweak some things this summer in attempt to rebuild.
Their manager, Vincenzo Italiano, has departed the Artemio Franchi for Bologna with Raffaele Palladino, after a couple of interesting seasons at Monza, replacing him. In the transfer window, Fiorentina have made a big splash in terms of reputation with the signing of free agent David de Gea, as well as the likes of Moise Kean and Amir Richardson.
PARMA TEAM NEWS: COUPLE OF PARMA ISSUES
Following their promotion, Parma will be dealing with a couple of injury concerns as experienced Brazilian midfielder Hernani and winger Adrian Benedyczak also unavailable.
The home team, coached by Fabio Pecchia, will likely continue to prefer the 4-2-3-1 system that saw them win the second division last season.
PREDICTED XI (4-2-3-1): Suzuki; Coulibaly, Balogh, Yordan Osorio, Valeri; Del Prato, Cyprien; Man, Nahuel Estevez, Cancellieri; Almqvist
UNAVAILABLE: Hernani (Injured), Benedyczak (Injured)
QUESTIONABLE:
FIORENTINA TEAM NEWS: FULLY FIT FIORENTINA
As mentioned, Fiorentina have a new manager in Rafaelle Palladino and so they will be setting up to play an interesting style of football with a preferred system of 3-4-2-1.
Vincenzo Italiano was slightly more proactive in attack and did prefer a back four system but I Viola will have to adjust with some intriguing signings in key positions.
PREDICTED XI (3-4-2-1): De Gea; Pongracic, Martinez Quarta, Ranieri; Kayode, Richardson, Mandragora, Biraghi; Beltran, Gonzalez; Kean
UNAVAILABLE:
QUESTIONABLE:
PARMA VS FIORENTINA PREDICTION
Parma won the Serie B table last season with just 66 goals scored in their 38 matches so that is an indication of how they will attack Serie A this season. It has often been quite an open bottom-half of the table so they will be confident of avoiding the drop. Rafaelle Palladino has had a fairly difficult pre-season in terms of performances and results as Fiorentina try to adjust to a more defensive style of football so we may not have a thriller for the neutral in this one at the Ennio Tardini.
PARMA VS FIORENTINA TIP: UNDER 2.5 GOALS