The Stadio Paolo Mazza is the venue of our next preview which features the clash between an already-relegated SPAL outfit and mid-table Fiorentina in Sunday’s encounter in Serie A in what is the final round of matches of the Italian top flight season.
It’s been a miserable campaign for SPAL who sit rock-bottom of Serie A having been resigned to relegation down to Serie B for a while and it may come as a relief for this miserable season to be drawing to a close for the hosts who are 16 points adrift of fourth from bottom club, Genoa.
SPAL have managed to collect just five league wins throughout this season, with their last three actually being achieved away from home with wins at Torino, Atalanta and Parma, but these rare victories have been too little too late for SPAL who will be playing Serie B football next season.
Even supposed advantage on home turf at their Stadio Paolo Mazza has deserted the hosts as they’ve failed to win any of their last 14 matches, 10 of which have ended in defeats.
Onto Fiorentina, and the visitors occupy a comfortable mid-table position ahead of this final match of the Serie A calendar where they’ll no doubt be keen to take advantage of SPAL’s plight and gain a further three points to their tally.
The visitors will also have been boosted by their recent 4-0 hammering of Bologna at their Stadio Artemio Franchi in midweek, especially as they’d suffered a 2-1 defeat away at Roma in the previous match.
Fiorentina have made a fairly strong and solid finish to this season’s Serie A campaign as they’ve lost just one of their last eight matches overall and they’ll be keen to extend this improved sequence of results at SPAL on Sunday.
Although Fiorentina have produced some inconsistent displays throughout this season especially away from home, the visitors have picked up useful wins on the road at Sassuolo, Napoli, Parma and Lecce which have helped them stay at arms length from the relegation battle below them.
In addition, Fiorentina hold a decent record against SPAL in previous exchanges as they’ve won the last three encounters on the trot by recording 1-0, 4-1 and 3-0 victories respectively and a fourth win on the trot looks to be on the cards here.