Roma travel to the Artemio Franchi Stadium to take on Fiorentina, with both sides locked in a competitive battle for the European spots in the league.
Date: 10/03/24
Kick-off time: 19:45
Venue: Artemio Franchi Stadium
Since sacking Jose Mourinho in mid-January, Roma have won six of seven league games, which has moved them up to fifth in the table and firmly in the race for the Champions League places. They currently trail fourth place Bologna by four points. A victory this weekend would allow them to keep pace with those above them, or potentially close the gap should other results go their way. Defeat could see them fall further behind and open the door for the likes of Atalanta to take advantage.
Fiorentina are not too far behind themselves, sitting in seventh place. They missed an opportunity to pick up a win against 10-men Torino, but are still only five points behind Roma. Three points would see them significantly close the gap on their opponents and perhaps gain some momentum going forward.
There should be goals in this game for Daniele De Rossi’s side, as they have scored at least three goals in the last three games. Paulo Dybala has entered into a rich vein of scoring form, bagging four in the last two. This includes a hat-trick against Torino, and he leads the way for the club with 12 goals. Romelu Lukaku has nine strikes and should be confident in adding to his tally against a defence who has kept just one clean sheet in nine games. Giacomo Bonaventura and Nicolas Gonzales have seven goals apiece for La Viola, and will be the main attacking threats for Vincenzo Italiano. Roma have also had difficulties in keeping clean sheets recently, so it could be an end-to-end game.
In eight meetings since 2020, Roma have enjoyed more success with five wins to Fiorentina’s two. It has been a fiery matchup in recent years, as six red cards have been handed out in this stretch of games. Two of those red cards came in the reverse fixture earlier this season, both to Roma players. The game ended 1-1, the first draw between the sides since 2019. Lukaku broke the deadlock in just the fifth minute, but Nicola Zelewski saw red for a second yellow in the second half. Fiorentina took advantage of the extra man almost immediately, as Lucas Martinez scored the equaliser. Lukaku was then shown a straight red in the 87th minute to send Roma down to nine men. It was too late for the visitors to find a winner, however, as the game ended level.
Serie A 
