On Sunday, Fiorentina extended their unbeaten league run to eight games after beating Inter 1-0 at the San Siro.
The result – Fiorentina’s seventh away league win of the season – becomes even more significant considering that Roberto Man-cini’s team were coming from three straight wins (vs Palermo 3-0, Atalanta 4-1 and Cagliari 2-1) and that Fiorentina had suffered 13 defeats from as many visits to the San Siro since their 4-0 mauling of Inter in May 2000.
Fiorentina’s most recent defeat came against troubled Parma on January 6. Since then, they went on to collect 18 points in their next eight outings.
Moreover, the Viola have ousted Atalanta (3-1) and Roma (2-0) in the Coppa Italia, and knocked out Tottenham Hotspur in the Europa League, 3-1 on aggregate.
Overall, Vincenzo Montella’s men are unbeaten in 12 games (eight wins and four draws).
This positive run augurs well for the six-times Coppa Italia winners.
Tomorrow, Fiorentina travel to Turin to take on Juventus in the first leg of the Coppa Italia semi-finals.
For Juventus, the domestic cup may not represent a chief objective this season as the competition is clearly of secondary importance with respect to the Serie A and the Champions League.
However, the Bianconeri, who maintained a nine-point lead over Roma in the league after a one-all draw at the Olimpico on Monday, will not go down without a fight especially when playing against rivals Fiorentina.
This time a year ago, Juventus knocked Fiorentina out of the Europa League Round of 16, 2-1 on aggregate.
Now, the club from Florence have a perfect opportunity to rise to the occasion and seek revenge over the Turin giants and in so doing, they would keep alive their hopes winning silverware this season.
On Monday, Fiorentina travel to the capital to cross swords with Lazio in Serie A.
This will be the first in a series of direct clashes involving those teams vying for third place and a slot in the Champions League in season 2015-16. On match-day 29, Fiorentina host Sampdoria and the following week, they visit Napoli.
At present, Napoli are third with 45 points, Lazio two points adrift and Fiorentina are one point behind Lazio in fifth place.
Although Samp and Genoa may still have their say in the race for third place, the indications are that this could solely be restricted to Napoli, Lazio and Fiorentina.
Tomorrow week, Montella’s side will be back in action in Europe as they host Roma in the first leg of the Europa League Last 16.
Fiorentina and Roma clashed three times this season.
On the opening day of the season, Roma scored a goal in each half to start on a high. In the corresponding second round fixture, on January 25, Fiorentina threw away an early lead to share the spoils at the Franchi stadium.
On February 3, Fiorentina conquered the capital to make it to the semi-finals of the Coppa Italia at Roma’s expense.
Montella re-union
For 40-year-old Montella, it will be an emotionally-charged reunion with the club he played for between 1999 and 2009, making 192 Serie A appearances and scoring 84 goals.
Also, the former Genoa and Sampdoria hit-man was Roma’s interim coach in the latter part of the 2010/11 season.
Fiorentina have been firing on all cylinders practically since the turn of the year. Many of their players are currently on top of their form and in newcomer Mohamed Salah, Montella has found an ideal re-placement for Juan Cuadrado, who joined Chelsea in January
It will not be plain sailing for Fiorentina to beat Juventus and reach their second successive Coppa Italia final.
Nor it will be easy to leapfrog Napoli and Lazio in the Serie A.
Nonetheless, if Fiorentina can keep up the momentum, all objectives could be within their reach.
Coppa Italia SFs (1st legs)
Playing today: 20.45 Lazio vs Napoli (second leg: April 8).
Tomorrow: 20.45 Juventus vs Fiorentina (second leg: April 7).