Fiorentina lost 2-1 away at Sampdoria last weekend and now sit 16th in the Serie A table. Spezia secured a shock 2-0 home win over AC Milan in their last game, a result that moved the club up into 13th.
When these two sides locked horns for their reverse league fixture in October they played out an entertaining 2-2 draw.
Fiorentina found themselves 2-0 up inside the opening 5-minutes, only for Spezia to fight back and earn a share of the spoils.
Fiorentina have only won one of their last six matches in all competitions, drawing once and lost the other four games. Spezia have lost three and won three of their last six outings and head into this game as the clear form favourites.
Goals are expected in Friday’s game as both teams have scored in four of Fiorentina’s and three of Spezia’s last six matches. Over 2.5 goals have been produced in four of the host’s and four of the visitor’s last six fixtures, which adds weight to our prediction for goals on Friday night.
Veteran midfielder Franck Ribéry is recovering from a muscle strain and looks set to miss Friday’s game for the hosts. Simone Bastoni and Martin Erlic are both suspended for Friday’s trip to Florence while Salvador Ferrer, Diego Farias, Claudio Terzi and Federico Mattiello are all injured and won’t feature until late February at the earliest.
Spezia did really well to fight back and claim a point the last time they went head-to-head with Fiorentina and the visitors head into Friday’s game as the in-form side.
Both teams have been involved in games that have produced lots of goalmouth action recently and we’re expecting more of the same on Friday. In terms of a final scoreline, clean sheets have been hard to come back for both sides, yet each has regularly been putting the ball into the back of the net.
With that in mind, a 2-2 draw appears to be the most likely outcome this Friday.