Nov-Dec Purple
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November will probably not be the favorite month of the purple outfit but i beg to differ. The month witnessed Fiorentina going on the road on four games, two of them out of Italy while hosting only one match against Sampdoria. In their first match of the month, La Viola traveled to the fashion city Milano with nothing but vengence on their minds. Following what happened at the end of last season and the controversy about Pizarro's sending off for dissent in an early match this season and losing Cuadrado's services for the match for being sent off on two yellow cards right on the match before for what was clear to be foul in the box. It was a journey to prove that Fiorentina deserved the Champions League spot more than a struggling Milan. There was no fitting end to that match without a freak goal from El Loco Vargas and fan favorite Valero marking a double goal Victory. Five days later, Montella and Co. went on recreational trip to Romania and spent 85 minutes enjoying thier first European group defeat until Matos Ryder had other thoughts and scored to ruin the fun. Once again fan favorite Valero put his stamp to the match by scoring the winning CREDITS goal in the stoppage time sending Pandurii out of the competition for good. The team kept a three point lead over Dnipro and was one of 3 teams to have won four out four opening matches in the Overall & Idividual Stats group stage this season. collection MiQ With only three days to get back to Florence and get ready to meet an old friend; Sampdoria Ratings coach Delio Rossi. His name brought only luck to the purple outfit with Rossi converting a penalty Slakas & ViolaNation Contributers kick and the scoring one of his best mouth dropping goals before the 20 mintues mark. The team November Purple Article ruled the match with great possession until they were struck by Gabbiadini with 14 minutes to go. MiQ The franchi witnessed a black cloud of chaoes and mistakes in those final minutes but the team was able to hold tight to the three points and clinch 5th rank from Hellas Verona. Checking & Proofreading Slakas , MiQ After two weeks of international matches that filled up the final spots of World Cup 2014, Production Fiorentina went to Udine to face an always difficult Udinese at the Friuli. Horrible play as usual and MiQ as expected by many of ViolaNation contributers after the international break saw the team record their 2nd match without scoring this season and third including Europa League matches. Three matches out of Ninteen. The winning goal for Udinese was a defensive marking error at the end of the first half. FUN FACTS, OR ARE THEY? Not so long after and mid-week, Fiorentina hopped on a plane to Portugal to face Pacos Ferreira for what could have been a group winning match if Dnipro stumble against Pandurii. SERIE A Fiorentina managed to keep a clean sheet but also managed to go two matches in a row without scoring. A worrying stat for a team pretty much depending on scoring more than conceding every In a whole month and out of 5 match. The group lead was retained anyway with one point ahead of Dnipro who are visiting Florence matches, Fiorentina was scheduled to in an attempt to avenge home defeat and win the group. play only once on home ground. After thirteen rounds of Serie A. In this edition of the monthly magazine, i have introduced a feature comparing Fiorentina's Only four players have a perfect current season to all previous seasons that implemented the 3 points per win system as well as appearance record namely Neto, including 20 teams and not 18. It was a long task inspired by an article wrote by Lorenzo of Aquilani, Valero and Rossi. ViolaNation titled "Is it ok that fans are "fickle"" and so i have named the section "To fickle or not to Montella has used 26 players in total fickle". This is Voluntery work where mistakes could happen. I wish to improve on it month by in the first Serie A 13 matches month but your support in giving feedback or pointing out any missed information is crucial for that including the one and only Olivera. progress. Giuseppe Rossi scores more than half of his attempt on goal by scoring 11 goals out of 21 attempts on target. NOVEMBER IN NUMBERS DESCRIPTION SERIE A EUROPE LEAGUE OVERALL Played Matches 3 2 5 Bakic and Olivera are the only Won Matches 2 1 3 players who never lost or drawn a Drawn Matches - 1 1 game in the Fiorentina roster Lost Matches 1 - 1 although that means absolutly Goals Scored 4 2 6 nothing. Goals Conceded 1 1 2 Goal Scoring Average 1.3 1 1.2 per match EUROPA LEAGUE Goal Conceding Average 0.3 0.5 0.4 per match CURRENT PLAYERS STANDINGS Fiorentina perfect group winning Fiorentina Rank Fifth First - record was stopped in Portugal by Top Rated Player Borja Valero (6.6) Gonzalo Rodriguez (6.8) Valero (6.7) Pacos Ferreira with a scoreless draw Top Goal Scorer Giuseppe Rossi (11 Goals) Cuad, Matos (3 Goals) Rossi (12) Top Assists Borja Valero (4 Assists) Rossi, Valero, Gonzalo (2 Assists) Valero (6) Highest yellow card receiver Gonzalo Rodriguez (5) Pizarro (3) Both (6) Pizarro accumulated 3 yellow cards Highest On Target Giuseppe Rossi (21 Attempts) Cuadrado (8 Attempts) Rossi (23) and a red card in only 4 matches Most Consistent Player Borja Velero Nenand Tomovic Valero played. The end of the year has come and brings with it the transfer window. Fiorentina has shown quality rarely seen in the previous seasons during the last two match and that is winning the must win matches regardless it being done with a beautiful display such as that against Bologna or an ugly one against Sassuolo. Before that La Viola were able to win the Europa league group right after a big match loss against Roma introduced after a thrilling win over close followers Hellas Verona. The month started with Gabriel (The one) Batistuta presence in the stands in a match that saw Fiorentina affirm themselves as contenders for the champions League challenge that will be anything but easy considering the sudden rise of Roma since last season, New comers Verona impressive run so far in the season and Intermilan's new found way of football. The match was a thriller and how the 7 goals scoring order was does not really matter. The team continued to concede too many goals but is still scoring more. Valero scored twice while El Loco scored once and Rossi converted the penalty to collect the three valuable points for Fiorentina. CREDITS Following that big win and rumors of Batigo becoming the club Ambassador, the purples travelled to the capital to face a new threat to Serie A top spots but a well known threat to Fiorentina Overall & Idividual Stats in past seasons. El loco Vargas goal was not even enough to steal a point from the hosts as Destro collection marked his comeback in Norbereto's net winning the match and keeping up with the League leaders MiQ Juventus. Ratings Slakas & ViolaNation Contributers Things start to look gloomy and Dnipro's one point behind pressure made the fans feel December Purple Article smaller and probably crushable then comes Cuadrado with a hell of a cross finding Joaquin's head to MiQ hit the back of the net following that with a goal of his own to earn the man of the match title and win the Europa League Group E first to Dnipro who came in second. Checking & Proofreading Slakas , MiQ Now it was time to collect and catch up with all the top four teams clashing against each Production other while La Viola face four must win matches before the middle of the season. Points started to MiQ drop from the top flight teams and Fiorentina put on the show against Bolgona with Ilicic starting to prove his worth, Valero continuing his new hobby of actually finding the net and Rossi doing what he does best. That performance was followed by an ugly one in Sassuolo against the green man who stood tall against the purple fire until Rossi's fireball proved too strong for them to stop earning another must win match three points. The holidays break is here but the same pattern should continue for a few rounds to come FUN FACTS, OR with Fiorentina's most difficult match up would be with Torino while the rest of the top flight teams ARE THEY? continue to face each other when Juventus host Roma and Verona host Napoli. The purple outfit is currently 3 points behind a champions league spot, but why stop there? League runner up sounds better to me. SERIE A Coppa Italia kicks of in January and Fiorentina path seems to be the easiest of all to reach Fiorentina managed to gain only 17 the semi-finals (Check Coppa Italia Overview). On the other hand, while winning the group put the points from possible 24 points of team against relatively easier competition Esbjerg from Denmark, the round of 16 draw put Fiorentina matches played at home. against Juventus provided that both teams qualify. Many points must be collected before the month Fiorentina were able to accumulate of death. January & February matches will prove to be very important and are must wins in order to 16 impressive points from away be able to pass through March with less pressure with three matches against Juventus on the horizon fixture thus far from 27.