Pre-season action continues on Tuesday, as Fiorentina’s tour of England reaches its next destination. Find the latest team news and betting odds, as FootItalia provides an in-depth Nottingham Forest vs Fiorentina preview.
Nottingham Forest vs Fiorentina Match Details
- Venue: City Ground, Nottingham
- Kick-off: 15:45 EST
- Betting Odds: Nottingham Forest +138 | Fiorentina +180 | Draw +250
- Pre-season Record: Forest P5, W0, D3, L2 | Fiorentina P3, W2, L1, D0
Forest vs Fiorentina Preview
Fiorentina’s pre-season tour of England got off to an underwhelming start against recently-relegated Leicester, who ran out eventual 2-0 victors.
It turned out to be a strangely flat performance from La Viola, with none of their seven attempts on goal hitting the target. It follows on from a strong start to their off-season, having won their opening fixtures against second and third tier opponents in Italy.
Serie A-winning manager Stefano Pioli is still finding his feet in Florence after arriving from Al Nassr this summer, and he and his players will get the chance to cut their teeth against stiff opposition in the coming days.
First up, they face a short trip across the English Midlands from Leicester to Nottingham. Tuesday’s fixture had been an early audition against a potential Europa Conference League opponent, until Forest were promoted to the Europa League following Crystal Palace’s demotion for breaching multi-club ownership rules.
That decision is, however, subject to Palace’s appeal, so these two sides may well lock horns on the continent next season.
Although Forest are Fiorentina’s toughest opponents yet in this pre-season, they have endured a stuttering off-season up to this point.
They failed to win across any of their five match so far, losing two and being held to goalless stalemates in the remaining three.
They return home to the City Ground for their first pre-season match on home soil, however, and offshore sportsbooks have handed them a slight edge in what is expected to be a narrow contest.
Nottingham Forest Team News
Nicolas Domingues remains Forest’s main absentee as he recovers from a knee injury, but Nuno Espirito Santo will be enthused by the return of Taiwo Awoniyi, who has recovered from an abdominal injury.
Dan Ndoye, who arrived from Bologna last week, and Jair Cunha both featured in Saturday’s loss against Birmingham. The summer arrivals are expected to be handed more minutes as they continue to get up to match-fitness.
Nottingham Forest Predicted Line-Up: Sels; Williams, Milenkovic, Murillo, Richards; Yates, Anderson; Ndoye, Gibbs-White, Hudson-Odoi; Wood
Fiorentina Team News
Fiorentina fielded a slightly weaker starting line-up in their defeat to Leicester on Sunday, which means Pioli may call on his regular starters for this friendly.
Christian Kouame is the only long-term injury Fiorentina are contending with as he recovers from an ACL issue, while back-up striker Albert Gudmundsson could feature after returning to first-team training.
Riccardo Sottil, M’Bala Nzola, Jonathan Ikone and Antonin Barak have been left out of Pioli’s pre-season squad as they are expected to depart the club this summer.
Fiorentina Predicting Line-Up: De Gea; Comuzzo, Mari, Ranieri; Dodo, Fagioli, Richardson, Gosens; Sabiri, Fazzini; Kean
Prediction
Neither team have been in particularly fruitful form in front of goal so far this pre-season. Nottingham Forest have managed just one goal in five matches, while the Fiorentina looked blunted in their defeat against Leicester last time out.
This is likely to be both teams’ most competitive match so far given their closeness in quality, which could translate to a grating watch as both sides strive to get up to full match-fitness.
The only thing that may give the match an edge is Nottingham’s return to the City Ground for the first time since last season, so we have selected Forest to scrape a narrow win.
Prediction: Nottingham Forest 1 – 0 Fiorentina
