A tight game with everything to play for on Wednesday as Atalanta host Fiorentina in the second leg of their Coppa Italia tie. Fiorentina are the away side here, but do come with an advantage as the won the first leg 1-0, so while Atalanta have the advantage of a home crowd behind them, they are a goal down. These two look to be evenly matched based on that, and recent form in other competitions, so I'm expecting a really close battle.
Atalanta Form GuideI don't think we've seen anywhere near the best from Atalanta over the past two or three months. At one point they were right in the middle of the top four battle, and on top of it, but now, they are on the outside in 6th and potentially not having any European football at all this season.
Talking of Europe and that's where we have seen them play well recently. They're in the semi finals of the Europa League after beating Liverpool on aggregate, a tie that included a 3-1 win away from home, a real confidence boost. They had chances against Fiorentina, and didn't play too badly, home advantage here is going to help them even further.
Fiorentina Form GuideWith a one goal lead coming here, it will be interesting to see how Fiorentina set up. I don't think they have enough to just sit back and defend, but I also don't think they will attack as much as they usually do. They would have liked another goal, but like Atalanta, are another team coming here after good play in Europe, and showing they know how to win two-legged ties.
They also won at the weekend, beating Salernitana 2-0 away from home, the side bottom of Serie A. A home win over Viktoria Plzen last Thursday put them in the semi finals of the Europa Conference League, and with this competition too, Fiorentina have a great chance to finish the season strongly in cups.
Match PredictionI don't think there will be much to choose between these two in this one, but I am going to give the narrow edge to Atalanta. If they can rediscover their best, they are the better team here, I think being behind will help them be more expansive, and they have a home crowd cheering them on. Put all of that together and I think they can win this one in 90 minutes.
